SUNDAY SCHOOL 
TEACHER-TRAINING 



H.M.HAMILL 



REVISED EDITION 




Book JH 35 

r 

Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



SUNDAY-SCHOOL 
TEACHER-TRAINING 



By H. M. HAM ILL, D.D. 

Superintendent of Teacher-Training Work in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and Chairman 
of the Educational Committee of the International 
Sunday - School Convention ; author of " Legion 
of Honor Normal Course of Study," "The Sun- 
day-School Teacher," " International Lesson His- 
tory," "The Bible and Its Books," etc. 



PHILADELPHIA 

THE SUNDAY SCHOOL TIMES CO. 



^ *p 



x c\0 



fV 



JISBRARY of CONBRESSI 

\ Two Codes Received 

JUl 24 90 r 

Copyright Entry 

ClASS ci~ XXC, NO, 

COPY t» 



Reprinted from The Sunday School Times, and 
Copyright 1903, 1904, 1907, 

BY 

The Sunday School Times Co. 



/BEG pardon for a personal word. I begin this 
series of chapters vjith no small embarrassment* 
I have neither sought nor shunned the call to vorite 
them. I have been a teacher most of my life* I have 
been trying to train Sunday-school teachers for twenty 
years. Mr. B. F.Jacobs laid hand upon me, and gave 
me charge of teacher-training in a great Sunday-school 
state. In the larger International field I did vohat I 
could to solve this greatest of all Sunday-school problems. 
I am harder at vjork upon it novo than ever, in the 
service of the church of my fathers. I long ago began 
to knovu the difficulties in the voay, but I have seen 
most of them overcome. I love the vuork. I shall at 
least put my heart into these chapters. If I can only 
make them hopeful and helpful to those voho may read 
them, I shall be happy indeed. 

H. M. H. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Is Teacher-Training Needed? i 



Who Should Do It? 13 

What It Should Be? 27 

Ways of Doing It 43 

Teacher-Training Agencies 59 

Interdenominational Teacher-Training ... 71 

Denominational Teacher-Training 89 

A Specimen Teacher-Training Lesson ... - 99 



IS TEACHER-TRAINING NEEDED? 



IS TEACHER-TRAINING NEEDED ? 

BY DAY and by night it is the thought of the great 
host of American Sunday-school teachers, many 
of whom I know and all of whom I love, that comforts 
and cheers me in my work. If one can help at all to 
solve the problem that confronts and hinders them, it 
will be labor well spent. And behind these teachers 
now teaching is another even greater host. It is the 
young people of the church who are to teach and train 
when we are gone. What can be done for them ? If 
teacher-training means much to the teacher at work, 
it means much more to the young man or woman 
whose life work is yet to begin. 

The first reason why I believe teacher-training is 
needed is that our teachers, and our young people who 
are willing to teach, sincerely and generally desire it. 
In fifteen years of Sunday-school work I have met 
very many of both classes, — in Canada and the 
United States, in the big cities and little villages, in 
the finely equipped schools of modern pattern and 
in the log and sod houses of the frontier, in conven- 
tions great and small, individually and collectively. 
Comparatively few of them were really indifferent. 
Some of them teach perfunctorily, because they know 
nothing better. Most of them sincerely desire to 
become better teachers, if only the way would open. 

I have watched them at conventions, some of 

3 



4 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

them coming long distances at large expense. I 
have seen them scanning the program anxiously 
to see if it had anything to help the teacher. I 
have noted their eager, upturned faces, always pa- 
thetic in their keen desire to find something in the 
speaker's words that would help them teach next 
Sunday's lesson. Name a teacher- training book, 
and quickly would come the inquiry, "Where can 
it be bought?" "What will it cost?" Whoever 
taught a lesson from the Bible to these teachers and 
young people as a teaching model but noted the 
quick flash of the eye and flush of the cheek if his 
work was skilfully done? I know the meaning of 
that flushed cheek. I have seen it so many times 
when Jacobs and Schauffler and Miss Harlow taught 
It means, "I want to be a better Sunday-school 
teacher. How can I learn to do it?" 

I have two recent letters lying on my desk. One is 
from Columbia, South Carolina. 

Dear Sir : 

I am anxious to take up the teacher-training course ot 
our church. I feel a little afraid to undertake it, as I am just 
a young girl with little time or experience to help me along • 
but I am very much interested in Sunday-school work, and, 
with God's help, I will try and do the very best I can to become 
a good teacher, Hoping to hear from you very soon. 
I am respectfully, 

a b. 
The other is from Lynchburg, Virginia. 

Dear Dr. Hamill : 

Your letter received, stating that I was the first to 
complete the full teacher-training course. I am glad to know 
that the old Dominion's representative came out first, and 



Is Teacher -Training Needed? 



'£> 



that the honor fell on one of old Centenary's teachers. I have 
eighty-one scholars in my Sunday-school class, and am also 
superintendent of our Home Department, numbering several 
hundred, which is the largest in Virginia. Every teacher in 
our church should complete the full training course. 

M. M. G. 

In these two letters extremes meet, and prove my 
point. The Lynchburg teacher was already one of 
the best in the South, a degree man from several 
schools and colleges, but among the first to respond 
to the teacher-training call of his church. The girl 
from South Carolina speaks for many thousands 
like her, with little time or experience to help, 
but wanting to "try and do the very best to be- 
come a good teacher." And because I am sure 
of my ground, I say that, wherever teacher-training 
fails, it is not the fault of the teachers or the young 
people. 

WHAT THE AGE DEMANDS IS ELECTRIC 

It is the "electric age. At ten years of age, I 
reveled in a stage-coach ride of sixty miles a day. 
Last month I covered the same route and distance in 
an hour. At twenty, I was guest in a hotel that 
burned gas, and was mindful "not to blow it out." 
At thirty, I marveled over my first electric light. 
"The old order passeth." The youth of the day sees 
more, hears more, and often knows 1 more things, than 
came to his grandfather in a lifetime. If he is not 
as wise, it is not for lack of knowledge: The multi- 
plying cities, the great railroad systems, the long- 
distance telephone, the public library, the lyceum, 
the Chautauqua, the "little red schoolhouse, " the 



6 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

penny daily, the Sunday-school "lesson-leaf," are 
Aladdin's lamp to our boys and girls. If he is a 
country lad, the rural route rider lays the big 
world daily at his door. I heard a boy of fifteen 
recently, in a country day-school, classify and sum- 
marize the news of the world from his father's 
daily in a way that would have made Thomas Jef- 
ferson gasp. 

What does this mean to the Sunday-school teacher ? 
It means that this boy, alert, wide awake, insistent, 
seeing and hearing many things, and always on the 
lookout for more, is his Sunday-school scholar. It 
means that he is taught by the finest day-school 
teachers in the world, and is not averse, as I am, to 
drawing odious comparisons between the teachers of 
his public school and the man or woman who teaches 
him on Sunday. It means that he knows good teach- 
ing from bad, and whether the Sunday-school teach- 
er' s Bible knowledge is genuine and thorough or 
mere "make-believe." The other day I saw from 
my car window a wagon-load of darkeys, big and 
little, drawn by an old gray mule, trying to race with 
our Limited Express. The public-school teacher is 
the "Limited," and the Sunday-school teacher who 
makes mock of his work, and sneers at teacher-train- 
ing, is the gray mule. Spilman, our Baptist field 
man, tells of the young North-Carolinian who refused 
to go to Sunday-school, though one of the best learn- 
ers of the village day-school. "They teach a feller 
something down here," he protested, "but up there" 
— with a look of disgust towards the village church — 
"they just mess with me." 



Is Teacher -Training Needed? y 

THE CHURCH IS CONCERNED ABOUT IT 

And well it may be. For a hundred and fifty years 
of American Protestantism the church has concerned 
itself chiefly over the message from the pulpit, and 
paid little heed to the lesson from the pew. Big 
preachers, high-priced evangelists, costly choirs, 
luxurious "auditoriums," were the accessories of 
public worship. Subterranean "basements," bare 
floors, dust, smoke, niggardly equipment in the way 
of books, libraries, maps, blackboards, etc., have 
usually been good enough for the Sunday-school — 
a sort of juvenile purgatory through which the child 
might work his way to the church heaven above- 
stairs. The stanch old Catholic Church, in spite of 
what we don't agree with in it, might well be our 
example. That church's concern for the child, and 
for the teaching of the child, as against the churchly 
needs of the adult, is as three to one. The morning 
mass is good enough for the one, but the finest Jesu- 
itical teaching is not too good for the other. I think 
I know a hundred of our fine city churches whose 
quartets and choirs cost more money per annum than 
would hire the finest teacher- training experts for their 
Sunday-schools. Within four years I know of one 
great denomination, that counts its Sunday-school 
scholars by the millions, voting down an appropria- 
tion of only three thousand dollars a year to keep an 
expert in the field at the service of its teachers, though 
lavish in its expenditure for the salvation of the 
heathen. 

I am glad to note, however, the breaking up 
of the old idea that great sermons, adult conversions, 



8 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

and "go-as-you-please" Sunday-schools, is the scrip- 
tural order. When a state constitutional convention, 
as the papers inform us, can spend an entire week 
debating how to improve its public schools, church 
synods, convocations, and conferences may well take 
hint Denver — Chicago — Winona ! Of what are 
these three names the sign ? At Denver, in June 
of 1902, two thousand picked representatives of 
American churches came together into their triennial 
International Sunday-school Convention. At first it 
was a question of many opinions as to what kind of 
Sunday-school lessons should be taught At the last, 
after days of discussion, as one voice it was the judg- 
ment that, whatever the system of Bible study, the 
Sunday-school teacher, rather than the Sunday-school 
lesson, should hereafter be the chief concern. At 
Chicago, eight months later, the " Religious Education 
Association," with four hundred pastors and college 
men, met to consider the whole field of related re- 
ligious education. Their final word, as at Denver, 
was the need of trained Sunday-school teachers. At 
Winona, in August of 1903, the elect men and women 
of the management of American Sunday-school work 
were in council for a week, and the making of Sun- 
day-school pastors and the training of Sunday-school 
teachers were the dominant themes. 

Already I could name six or more of the greater 
churches which have recently erected, or are begin- 
ning to erect, teacher-training departments, and are 
putting training-courses and men into the field. 
fn a later chapter in this book I shall have some- 
thing to say of the great work they are doing. And 



Is Teacher -Training Needed? 9 

of the nearly sixty inter-denominational state and 
provincial Sunday-school Associations which consti- 
tute the International Convention, several of them 
have been doing systematic and efficient teacher- 
training work among the churches, while all ot them 
have formally approved, and most of them have 
entered upon it. 

Sixteen years ago, when I began my Sunday-school 
rounds as an itinerant teacher-trainer, I can recall not 
a few humiliating experiences in the presence of the 
dignitaries of the church, as I pleaded for an ex 
cathedra endorsement of teacher-training. Brethren 
whose divinity had been well doctored would eye me 
askance under the rims of their gold glasses as if I 
were vender ot some sort of pious popcorn or patent 
medicine. Times have changed, and the doctors 
have been changed by them. I am not as lonesome 
nowadays, and the "popcorn" business has grown 
and prospered. 

THE WAY IS OPENING 

Whether through denominational or interdenomi- 
national agency, the time must come when the un- 
trained Sunday-school teacher will be without excuse 
or standing. The growth of public sentiment is slow 
but sure, and when fully aroused it is resistless. I 
have tried to show how that sentiment is crystalizing 
about the work ot the Sunday-school teacher. Years 
ago, when Horace Mann was opening the way, poli- 
ticians and legislators made mock of his plea for 
thoroughly trained secular teachers. We all know 
how that battle was fought and won. The teachers 



C 



io How to Become a Trained Teacher 

wanted it, the patrons of the schools began to favor it, 
the taxpayers finally demanded it. Now a costly 
normal school, within reach of and free to every pub- 
lic-school teacher, is taken for granted. But it took 
more than fifty years to bring it to pass. I can re- 
member when a Methodist bishop took his fling at 
college-bred preachers and preaching, and carried the 
laugh of the conference with him. Look for him 
now, and you will find him — in the cemetery. Every 
plea that was made, every battle that was fought for 
a trained ministry, is now upon the side of trained 
Sunday-school teachers. We are heirs of all the 
promises as well as the achievements of secular or 
religious educational history. My field of labor is in 
a section rightly looked upon as conservative and a 
little old-fashioned, particularly in religious habits 
and opinions. I only wish the readers of The Sun- 
day School Times could make my rounds with me, 
and see something of the graciousness, for my work's 
sake, of my bishops and ministerial brethren. And 
what is true of my own field and work is true of other 
fields and men. 

There is no trouble about the opening of the ' • way. ' ' 
Lying on my desk is the report of a college professor 
who is using his spare hours to organize and conduct 
class after class in teacher-training, with a roll of 
probably two hundred students in one city. Letters 
come to me from pastors wanting to know how to go 
about forming teacher- training classes. Here is what 
a plain country superintendent writes : "My school is 
small and away from the railroad. But I have been 
reading of teacher-training plans, and I think we 



Is Teacher -Training Needed? n 

can do as well in the country as in the city. I am 
sure we need it. My hardest trial is to get good 
teachers. I send you twelve names, including my 
officers and teachers and some young people who I 
believe have the making of good teachers in them. 
We propose to go through with it to the end, and I 
intend, as superintendent, to keep in the lead." 

Here is another from a young pastor : "Nothing 
has so stirred up my Sunday-school and helped my 
teachers as the training-books we are now studying. 
I can see the change coming over them." In nine 
out of ten such letters there is not a hint of expert 
leadership. Much as they would like to have that 
they are not wasting time looking for it. Here and 
there is a good Christian public-school or college man 
who can be had as leader for the asking, but in the 
main it is like a young man who wrote : "I need it, 
and I am going to have it. I would like to join with 
others in a class. I intend to try to get others in the 
school to join with me, but, if I fail, you can count on 
me single-handed and alone." This last letter struck 
the keynote. The "way" is always open to one 
who has a "will" to do it. It is the teacher who 
says "You can count on me single-handed and alone" 
that I am counting on. 



WHO SHOULD DO IT ? 



II 



WHO SHOULD DO IT? 



I HAVE a bunch of five teacher- training keys, each 
thoroughly fitted and trusty. They are ' ' skeleton * * 
keys, which means that they fit any teacher-train- 
ing lock, wherever and whatever it may be. Take any 
one of the keys, try it upon any lock, and the door 
will open. You may have to use it upon a succession 
of doors before you come upon what you are seeking, 




but, if you fail, the fault is not in the key. I have 
given to each of my keys a name, and I believe I can 
put the five keys at work in such a way that not a 
door of hindrance to teacher-training will continue 
closed. If I could be allowed to use them all at once, 

15 




1 6 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

every key turning and every door opening, the prob- 
lem of teacher-training would speedily be solved. 
You will notice, however, that three of my keys have 
been little used and are growing rusty. Whatever 
has been done in ways of teacher-training is to the 
credit of two keys only, and even these have been 
sparingly and awkwardly used. Let us take up the 
keys one by one, and consider what each, in order, 
might do. 

THE CHURCH KEY 

The Church Key comes first. The 
CHURCH jjjj \ training of Sunday-school teachers 

will continue to be an incident until 
the churches, per se, shall grapple with it. 
More than a score of denominations, small and great, 
constitute the International Sunday-school Convention. 
Some of them count their schools by the tens of thou- 
sands. Most of them have money and men at com- 
mand for every possible problem. All of them are 
beginning to see that a grave question affecting their 
future growth is that of trained Sunday-school 
teachers. 

Yet for nearly fifty years, since the Rev. John H. 
Vincent as pastor at Joliet, Illinois, in 1857, organized 
the first teacher-training class known to church his- 
tory, the Church Key has been hanging rusty on 
an unopened door. The trouble was that the church 
unwisely handed over the key to the Chautauqua 
movement in 1874, and the one hundred or more 
summer assemblies which sprang from that move- 
ment, after vainly trying to do for the churches what 



Who Should Do It? 17 

the churches ought to have been doing for themselves, 
have about lost the teacher-training key. 

Along with the Chautauqua, as early as 1888, came 
the teacher-training work of the stronger inter-denomi- 
national Sunday-school associations, Illinois and Ohio 
leading the way ; and I shall later try to show how, 
under serious difficulties and with inadequate means, 
they have essayed to do for the church what the 
church was bound by its divine commission to do for 
itself. In the nature of the case, an inter-denomi- 
national agency can only supplement the denomi- 
national, and can never supplant or displace it. 
Inter-denominationalism is at best a servant, not a 
master. With its eye upon the entire field of the 
churches, it can gather what is best in all and serve 
the needs of each. 

But its best service is done when it has reinforced 
and encouraged the denominations severally in doing, 
each for itself, its own proper work. It is the duty 
and right of each church to organize, maintain, and 
direct its own teacher-training. It owes this to its 
teachers, who serve it without pay and often without 
thanks. It owes it to the Sunday-school scholars that 
they shall have the best Bible training the church can 
supply. It owes it to the Bible itself as a book not 
easily handled by even the trained teacher, and often 
travestied by the untrained. The church can speak 
with authority to its own pastors and people, who will 
heed what it says if only for the sake of loyalty to it. 
Blood is thicker than water, and it is no reproach to 
inter-denominationalism to say that it can never com- 
mand such loyalty as a worthy churchman will render 




1 8 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

to his own denomination. If I see one thing plainer 
than another, it is that each church must take up its 
own burden of teacher-training, and by every honor 
it can confer and every authority it can rightfully 
exercise inspire its teachers to prepare themselves for 
their high vocation. It is a comfort to know that 
some of the churches are beginning to do this, and 
that the lost "church key," that opened doors for 
outsiders and left its own doors hard and fast, is being 
recovered and freed from rust. 

THE SEMINARY KEY 

It is a question whether church 
^s eminary u | key or theological seminary key is 

the more effective. The church 
has the final word of authority, but the church, 
in these days, is largely what the seminaries make it 
Let the seminary magnify a principle or method, and in 
a few years, among the laity, it will be reflected in a 
thousand pastoral fields. I have an easy and con- 
vincing illustration. A few years ago the Louisville 
Baptist Seminary had at its head a prince among 
preachers and scholars, Dr. John A. Broadus. He 
was a devoted friend of the Sunday-school and its 
teachers, and impressed his students with the value 
and dignity of Sunday-school work. Beginning with 
Sunday-school "practice work" in Louisville, and 
extending it throughout the entire South, the old 
"Broadus boys," and their worthy seminary suc- 
cessors, have become the aggressive organizers and 
teacher-trainers ot a great and growing church. A 
"pastor's Sunday-school institute" has become the 



Who Should Do It? 19 

big annual event of the seminary calendar, and a chair 
of Sunday-school pedagogy has been established for 
the training of Southern Baptist preachers. 

Recently I was asked to contribute to a symposium 
upon *«What can be done by our seminaries to ad- 
vance our Sunday-school work ? ' ' My first plea was 
for a better Sunday-school "spirit" in the semi- 
naries, an esprit du corps like that at Louisville. The 
••seminary key" has too much of the smell of 
"ology" and dogma about it, and too little of the 
scent of the living flowers that grow, or ought to 
grow, in the pastor's garden. The young men are 
too busy digging for Hebrew particles and Greek 
roots, and are not enough concerned for the plain 
people in the Sunday-school pews. So far as the 
writer knows, there is a Sunday-school chair, or 
the provision for it, in only three theological semi- 
naries, though professors abound for everything else, 
from Sanskrit to sociology. With (in round num- 
bers) 150,000 American Sunday-schools, 1,500,000 
officers and teachers, and 15,000,000 enrolled mem- 
bers, all depending for skilled leadership chiefly upon 
the output of our seminaries, it is a little singular that 
only four or five of these seminaries include a Sunday- 
school text-book in their curricula, a few more hold 
Sunday-school ••lecture courses," not always by ex- 
perts, and most of them depend largely upon a student 
practice-work in neighboring Sunday-schools, usually 
without official direction and revision. 

Theology is good and necessary, but Sunday-school 
soul-winning and teacher-training are better. West 
Point drills its cadets thoroughly in science, mathe- 



20 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

matics, and language, but does not stop with theory. 
The West Point graduate is nothing if not master of 
detail and trainer of others. From filling a cartridge 
to maneuvering an army corps he knows how to do 
things, and is never so happy as when transforming an 
awkward squad into well-disciplined soldiers. A young 
pastor just out from the seminary, who is not a type 
of the better class of our seminary men, said to me 
recently, upon urging him to conduct a training-class : 
"I haven't time, — if I had, I wouldn't know how. 
Let the superintendent train them — it's not my busi- 
ness." I can well believe it was of this man's semi- 
nary examination a Sunday-school wit remarked, 
"They asked ten questions about angels, and not one 
about the child." I beg pardon for insisting that it 
is the " business" of the ex-seminary pastor to train 
his Sunday-school workers, and of the seminary to 
cause him to "know how." My "seminary key" 
ought to *be the most serviceable, but I am sorry to 
say it is the rustiest of the bunch. 

THE PASTOR'S KEY 

The pastor of a church has been 
pastor u" jj defined as "the eye, the ear, and 

the last word." He ought to see 
and hear everything that makes for the welfare of 
his charge. His word ought to be, and usually is, the 
final word of authority. There is nothing more beau- 
tiful, and at times more pathetic, than the upturning 
of the hearts of the people toward their pastors. It 
is like the flowers that turn their faces toward the sun. 
Even the children give their brightest smile and word 




Who Should Do It? 21 

to the pastor, and the stalwart men of the street in- 
stinctively pay him honor when he comes among 
them. In many years of Sunday-school work I have 
noted this singular respect for men of the cloth. I 
pray God it may never be less. It has been my con- 
stant habit, in every teacher-training endeavor, to lean 
heavily upon these men of God, whom he has called 
to be " overseers ' ' of his church. I count a hearty 
word of advice and encouragement from a pastor to 
his Sunday-school workers as worth more than all my 
letters and speeches. Many times, when discouraged 
over attempts to start a teacher-training work, a touch 
of the pastor* s hand, a word from his lips, has scat- 
tered indifference and secured success. I think I 
owe as much to this gracious pastoral word as any man 
living, and I have come to rely upon it when every- 
thing else fails. 

I take my appeal to these men. If the church has 
failed to put into your hands a teacher-training plan, 
if the seminary failed to give you a Sunday-school 
training, your "pastor's key," brethren of the cloth, 
can open the door and solve the problem. By virtue 
of their work, your teachers are your under-pastors, 
and can help largely to make or unmake your minis- 
try. How well or poorly they teach, it is for you 
chiefly to determine. No other man can do with or 
for them what you can do. The good shepherd ' ' put- 
teth forth his sheep, he goeth before them, and the 
sheep follow him ; for they know his voice, and a 
stranger will they not follow." 

One of the earliest and tenderest recollections of my 
teacher- training work is of a gray-haired Presbyterian 



22 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

pastor, a man of rare scholarship and of well-rounded 
pastoral efficiency, whose ministry of nearly fifty years 
had brought honor to himself and his church. I had 
tried to set forth the need and practicability of teacher- 
training, but met with seeming indifference. The old 
man took me to his home, called in his workers, took 
the points of my plea and made them his own, and 
with scarce an effort, in ways that only a loved pastor 
could use, organized a class, heading the roll with his 
own name. When I praised his good work, he said : 
" I get more out of it than I put into it. It renews 
my own youth, and will be about all I can leave 
behind." 

THE SUPERINTENDENT' S KEY 

I have asked many superinten- 
iPf RifffpffiDff^n dents, "What is the one hardest 

thing you have to do ? ' ' And their 
uniform answer was "To get teachers." The 
question of " supply teachers " invariably comes to the 
front in Sunday-school conventions. I am not surprised 
that it does, and I have not found that the usual ready- 
made devices from the platform meet the difficulty. 
The cashier of a Southern bank, superintendent of a 
Presbyterian Sunday-school, confronted me recently 
with this old and vexed question. When I had put 
before him my stock alternatives of a "supply class" 
keeping a week ahead of the school in lesson prepa- 
ration, or of pledged "emergency" volunteers, his 
countenance fell as he pronounced them a "snare 
and a makeshift" I heartily concurred, and my 
parting word was : "You will have to grow your own 




Who Should Do It ? 23 

crop of teachers. It is the one thing to do, and you 
are the one man to do it." 

I tried to tell him how he could pick from his 
school the most hopeful subjects for teacher- training, 
put them under his most competent teacher in the 
regular session of the school, select for them a teacher- 
training course, taking the place, for the time being, 
of the International Lesson ; make much of them in 
honor, and pledge them in advance to the ministry 
of teaching when the course was completed. Any 
other way out of the difficulty is at best a « « make- 
shift," and many superintendents are beginning to 
find it out. 

Whatever the pastor may or may not do, the prob- 
lem of teacher- training, in its last analysis, is "next" 
to the superintendent. The failure of his teachers, 
or his failure to get more teachers, is his peculiar 
burden, and involves his own good name. The 
churches generally look to the superintendent to 
choose his teachers, and lay the direct blame of their 
failure upon him. Getting consent of somebody to 
teach a class is not his main difficulty. It is finding 
those who know what and how to teach. 

The superintendent has found by hard experience 
that piety is one thing, and skill to teach is another. 
He needs a combination of both, and his trouble is 
largely on the educational side. His call to those 
already spiritually equipped is usually met by such 
protests as these : "I am not a teacher ;" " I do not 
know the Bible well enough;" "I can't manage 
boys and girls ;" " If I knew how, I would be will- 
ing." I find no fault with these excuses. They 



24 How to Becofne a Trained Teacher 

come from a conviction that Sunday-school teaching 
is a serious and delicate work, and that piety alone, 
without specific preparation for it, should disqualify 
the candidate. 

No man is closer to his teachers than the faithful 
superintendent. No man, not even the pastor, should 
try to come between him and them, if the superinten- 
dent is doing his duty. No true superintendent is so 
wanting in influence over his helpers as to be unable 
to lead them into ways of improvement. I like the 
superintendent who magnifies his office and leads his 
school, and does not hand round his problems to be 
solved by others. Let him try the key of his great 
office upon this problem of teacher-training. His 
success will depend upon three things, — his pride, 
his pluck, his persistence ; his pride in his standing 
as a superintendent, his pluck in striking out into 
new ways, his persistence in stubbornly holding to 
his purpose until success is achieved. 

THE TEACHER' S KEY 

I make much of my "teacher's 
teacher" 1 ^"! key," and the key itself shows 

how well the teachers have begun 
to use it. It is like the old fable in y£sop of 
the lark and the wheat-field. As long as the farmer 
waited for his neighbors to cut his wheat, the little 
larks might make themselves at home. But when 
the farmer decided to do his own cutting, Mrs. Lark 
and family went visiting. I believe strongly all I 
have written about "church," "seminary," "pas- 
tor," and "superintendent's" key. But I studied 




Who Should Do It ? 25 

inertia in my school days, and learned that large 
bodies move slowly. Perhaps the new metal, ra- 
dium, which they say is to revolutionize the old order 
of nature, may help to hurry them up. Meantime 
Farmer John would better cut his own wheat. 

The teacher's key, in the teacher's own hand, is 
slow but sure. It would turn far more easily if the 
other keys were constantly in use, but without them 
it has proved its effectiveness in the hands of at least 
ten thousand American Sunday-school teachers. 

At Cold Harbor, under General Lee, a brigade of 
us — raw recruits from the "brush country" — waited 
several hours for General or Colonel Somebody 
to come along on horseback and lead us into our 
first charge. Becoming a little excited by bursting 
shells and buzzing minie-balls, and ignorant of the 
conventionalities of such an occasion, we finally 
popped out from our hiding-place like so many jack 
rabbits, and made the charge on our own account. 
It was done with roughness and despatch, but it won 
the day. 

Individually or collectively, with or without leaders 
or orders, the Sunday-school teachers who are really 
concerned about the matter should quit waiting and 
begin work for themselves. A self-trained teacher 
may lack a little in finish, but, like a home-made 
shoe or coat, wears well. If a company of teachers 
can come together and make a success of a teachers' - 
meeting, they have already learned to do as hard a 
work as maintaining a teacher-training class. 

In a little city some years ago, I advised a small 
teachers' -meeting that wanted to broaden the scope 



26 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

of its study, and make its sessions more profitable 
to read and discuss by chapters, for twenty minutes 
of each session, Dr. Trumbull's "Yale Lectures on 
the Sunday-School." The advice was taken, and 
with a single copy of the book in hand a course of 
teacher-training was begun, and continued through 
other books, with the result of revolutionizing the 
antiquated methods of the school, and making it 
one of the foremost in the state. It was a crude, 
homespun way of getting at it, but it won, and that 
is always the main point 

I remember, when a boy, chasing a bird through 
ten acres of meadow to put salt on its tail. I 
was advised by a kind friend that this was a sure 
method of bird-catching. I have not lost faith in 
the method, — for other boys. The trouble with me 
— or with the bird — was in not finding the "point 
of contact" I had not then read Mr. Du Bois's 
fine book on that subject 

My experience, however, leads me to counsel the 
teachers who may read these lines to quit chasing the 
bird in the meadow, and put salt on the bird in hand. 
It does not pertain to this chapter to show how this 
may be done. The question is first whether the 
teacher, if a way can be opened to him, has the 
faith and courage to attempt for himself, unaided, a 
work which he has been vainly waiting for others to 
aid him in doing. The " teacher's key" is both sign 
and test It points the way, and it tests the nerve 
of the teacher. 



WHAT IT SHOULD BE 



Ill 

WHAT IT SHOULD BE 

FIRST, and chiefly, it should be the study of a 
course of teacher-training books. I am some- 
times met at the outset by the objection that "train- 
ing comes by experience, not by books." My answer 
is that a book itself may be the finest exposition of 
teaching experience. On my table lie two little books. 
In one is the clear-cut statement of teaching principles 
by one who worked his way from a district school 
to the presidency of a great state university ; in the 
other is the broad common sense of one who was easily 
the Nestor of American Sunday-school teachers. The 
objection would sweep away all educational training, 
whether religious or secular. Books are mainly the 
working-tools of state normal college and common 
school. The young student in training for the state's 
license to teach, or the schoolboy trudging home with 
well-filled satchel, illustrates the training value of 
books. The Sunday-school teacher has no friend so 
near at hand and capable of serving his ambition as 
a well-chosen training-book. 

I am met by another objector who cites the old 
maxim that "a little learning is a dangerous thing," 
and challenges any system of teacher-training as of 
necessity elementary, and therefore superficial. But 
elementary learning is not of necessity superficial. 
The multiplication-table and the correct spelling of 

29 



30 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

words are the simplest elements of learning, but they 
run through the entire gamut of scholarship. It is 
not so much the quantity as the quality of one' s learn- 
ing that gives it value. If teacher-training does no 
more than serve as a guide-post in pointing out the 
way to future effort, it will have done a noble service. 
Personally I can testify to the invaluable help I re- 
ceived from a little book which gave me my first real 
view of the Bible and my first impulse to its sys- 
tematic study. 

One other objection worth considering is the lack 
of expert leadership to organize and conduct teacher- 
training classes. "Training needs a trainer," they 
say. But trainers are being evolved out of the very 
processes of training. From a little company, with- 
out skijled leadership, faithfully studying together, 
one who has the training instinct will be developed. 
There is a natural and inevitable development of 
leadership for every new movement. When the 
steamboat was invented, the flatboatman became its 
pilot or captain. When the scythe was displaced by 
the reaper, the scytheman began to drive the reaper. 
With seven hundred training- classes and ten thousand 
students in my charge, nine out of ten are doing the 
required work under untrained leaders, who are learn- 
ing to cross bridges as they come to them. 

Summing up what a teacher- training course should 
be, I would say : It must largely be elementary, 
for the many to whom an advanced course is im- 
possible. It should be flexible, allowing for ad- 
vanced work for those who are capable. It should 
consist of a few choice books, small in compass, not 



What It Should Be 31 

expensive, written by undisputed masters of both 
theory and practice. It should require honest study 
from the students, and not tempt them to pious fraud 
in a contest for its honors. It should have a definite 
objective, in the way of examinations, a diploma for 
those who have done conscientious work, and public 
recognition locally and generally, wherever both are 
practicable. It should be comprehensive, including 
in well-proportioned parts every department of learn- 
ing in which a Sunday-school teacher needs to be 
trained. 

What are these several parts ? First, the Bible, as 
the one book the teacher must teach. Second, the 
scholar, who is to be taught and trained in the knowl- 
edge and use of this book. Third, the teacher and 
the art of teaching. Fourth, the school, in which the 
teaching and training are to be chiefly done. Last, 
the church, under whom and for whom should be all 
religious teaching and training. 

DO YOU KNOW YOUR BIBLE ? 

I shall not indulge in platitudes about the Bible, 
— its divine origin, its infallible doctrines, its mar- 
velous achievements. I can easily take these for 
granted. I am more concerned for the Bible as a 
text-book in the hands of an untrained teacher. 
The old illusion still widely holds, that any pious 
man or woman, Bible in hand, is competent to teach. 
A certain indefinable " afflatus," the promise or 
proof of which I could never discern, is supposed to 
hover over the good man who teaches with pious 
motive and bungljng method. I can find no warrant 



32 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

in the Bible for this ancient illusion. David' s prayer 
was, "Make me to understand the way of thy pre- 
cepts ; so shall I talk of thy wondrous works." Paul's 
last plea was that Timothy might " rightly divide the 
word of truth." Perhaps no two men were more 
honored of God in the use of the Bible than Mr. 
Moody and Mr. Jacobs. Each said of the other, 
'•He knows the Bible better than any man living." 
I happened to know something of the intense and 
methodic Bible study of these two men. Here and 
there God may have made use of sanctified ignorance, 
but it is his rule to honor men only as they "rightly 
divide " his Book. 

I know I shall be met by some who will say that the 
Bible is a hard book, and that it can never be truly 
learned except in the languages in which it was writ- 
ten. If it be hard, it is a comfort to think of the in- 
numerable lights converging upon it As to its 
Hebrew and Greek originals, my English Bible is not 
to be despised. Every word of it has been threshed 
over and over by the scholars of many centuries, and 
I can even presume to face the man of Hebrew and 
Greek with my Revised Version and a standard com- 
mentary in hand. Indeed, I have been made to 
question at times, in the presence of pretentious and 
"liberal" scholarship, if the modicum of Hebrew 
and Greek behind it was not the "fly in the pot" of 
Bible ointment. 

I am not a stickler for particular methods of Bible 
study. " One man's meat is another man's poison." 
I would rather know one well-defined principle un- 
derlying its sixty-six books than to become expert in 



What It Should Be 33 

the use of a score of methods. The three qualities in 
Bible study which I exalt are : First, a spiritual 
grasp of the truth, which comes only through slow- 
wrought experience to those who ■ ' will do the will of 
God ; ' ' the intellectual grasp, which comes only by 
hard study, as with any other book ; the educational 
grasp, which comes only of systematic study. The 
trouble with much of our Bible study is its aimless- 
ness and lack of educational system. Here is the 
testimony of one of the foremost Bible students of the 
age : " It is a mistake to suppose for a moment that 
Bible study consists in the study of isolated texts, or 
in the study of single chapters, or even in the study 
of entire books. A man might study verses all his 
life, and know comparatively little about the Bible." 
It is the difference between knowing the world about 
us through microscope or telescope. When a boy, I 
was given the former, and reveled in wing of gnat 
and eye of fly. Later, I saw the heavens through the 
telescope, and entered at once into comradeship with 
the universe. 

Let me test you as a Bible student by a few perti- 
nent questions. Have you a purpose in your Bible 
study ? Or are you drifting from Sunday to Sunday 
over the few hurriedly scanned verses of your Sunday- 
school lesson ? Are you content with the opinions of 
others, or are you trying to find a way to the truth of 
the Bible for yourself ? Have you a plan of Bible 
study ? Can you call up from memory in order the 
salient events in the history of God's chosen people, 
through theocracy, kingdoms, and exile, thence on- 
ward through Christ and the apostles ? Can you call 



34 Haw to Beco7ne a Trained Teacher 

the roll of Hebrew prophets, and assign to each his 
place and message ? Can you give me a "character 
sketch" of Bible heroes and heroines? Can you 
pass a simple schoolboy examination upon the life 
and ministry of our Lord ? Can you think your way 
through any book of the Bible, chapter by chapter, 
knowing that you know it ? Can you tell me how the 
Bible came to us, or give me the story of your Eng- 
lish Bible from "Wycliffe' s rude copy to the noble 
version from which you teach ? If you say you are 
too busy to learn this, I can point you to thousands 
of young people who have done or are doing all this 
and more. But it was done under a pia7i of sys- 
tematic study, from some such small book as Dun- 
ning' s "Bible Studies," — my little teacher-training 
" standby." 

HOW TO KNOW YOUR SCHOLAR 

It is an era of books and lectures on pedagogy, 
" child psychology," " paidology," which have a 
classical sound, and are much in evidence. I prefer 
to write about plain boys and girls. "If he means 
human natur," said a countryman at a convention, 
while a lecturer was unfolding his paidology from a 
chart, " I know something about that myselt" In 
the multitude of child-counselors there is not scrip- 
tural assurance of safety*. I sometimes turn away 
from these glib paidologists with the feeling I had 
when the phrenologists used to examine our craniums, 
and make charts of our future destiny — at a dollar per 
chart Human nature in books and in boys is not 
always the same. The best book on child study I 



What It Should Be 35 

know of is a little black Book, to which I refer all 
problems of religious psychology. Next to that book 
in my library is Froebel. I beg pardon for taking my 
paidology from the Bible, though I am glad, however, 
to pay tribute to much of the current study of the 
Sunday-school scholar, especially to such books as 
Miss Harrison's "Study of Child Nature," DuBois's 
"Point of Contact," Trumbull's "Hints on Child 
Training," McKinney's "The Child for Christ." A 
fault, as I see it, in most of the recent books, is their 
exclusive concern for childhood. The foundation of all 
teaching and training is childhood, indeed, but I risk 
being held as a heretic in suggesting that the boys 
and girls of the intermediate, and the big boys and 
girls of the advanced department, are quite as deserv- 
ing and needful of our concern. My neighbor is 
building a fine home, and his contractor took much 
pains over the foundation. But, as a wise master- 
builder, I notice that he is equally painstaking with 
the rising stories of brick. I would as soon have a 
faulty foundation as a leaky roof to my house, and it 
does not follow that because the foundation is secure 
the roof will not let in water. I am frank to say that 
I believe primary books and theories are a little over- 
done, and are obscuring problems quite as grave and 
imminent. Certainly the "adolescent period" folks 
and the primary folks, with their counter claims, need 
to get together. 

As to the study of the scholar in his intellectual 
states and processes, I would like to have every teacher 
trained to know the laws of mind, and the order and 
relative value and use of the unfolding mental facul- 



36 How io Becojfte a Trained Teacher 

ties. But I doubt if the average teacher, who is 
usually a busy person, has time or need for systematic 
study of pure psychology. The applied psychology 
of such books as I have named will come nearer 
meeting his need and opportunity. Give me one who 
really loves boys and girls, whose affection leads him 
into intimate personal contact with them at all points, 
who has faith in the wisdom of his Bible to interpret 
human nature in all of its changing moods, whose 
chief concern is to save souls and form Christian 
character, — the best I can do for such a teacher is to 
commend to him one of the four books I have named, 
and leave professional pedagogy and paidology to 
take care of themselves. 

THE WELL-ROUNDED TEACHER 

There are few "born teachers." They are as rare 
as born artists or authors. Most of the successful 
teachers of the day were bunglers at beginning, but 
by study and practice have mounted step by step to 
success. Learning how to teach is not harder or 
more complex than learning to keep accounts, to bind 
books, to run a farm. It involves both science and 
art The science of teaching gives one the principles 
by which teaching must be shaped. The art comes 
from patient application of these principles to the 
work of instruction. There are certain fundamental 
principles of teaching, few, simple, and unchanging. 
The great teachers of the past used them, and every 
successful teacher consciously or unconsciously em- 
ploys them. Christ gave them his sanction. When 
a "certain lawyer" stood up, tempting him with 



What It Should Be 37 

questions about his neighbor, and our Lord put the 
burden of answer back upon his questioner, he was 
enforcing what is now one of the "seven laws" in 
Gregory' s little book : « * Use the pupil' s own mind, 
exciting his self-activity." 

To learn thoroughly such a principle, then to make 
one's self master of it by practice, is far better than 
slavish copying of methods without understanding 
the reason for them. Ready resort to borrowed 
methods is the bane of much modern teaching. The 
mere copyist shifts from copy to copy, and, though 
some of his methods may happen to hit, is shooting 
arrows in the dark. Sunday-school conventions and 
institutes are a hindrance rather than a help to the 
teacher who takes home from them for use in his 
class a method the reason for which he does not 
understand. What the trained Sunday-school teacher 
needs is to be grounded in the unchanging laws of 
teaching, and from these to deduce his own methods, 
or wisely adapt the methods of others. Otherwise he 
is like one trying to pick out of piles of stone and 
brick and lumber the architect' s plan of a building. 

I cannot urge too strongly upon those who are am- 
bitious to succeed as teachers the study of these 
"principia," or first things in teaching. They come 
only by study and from books. The old-world expe- 
rience transmits them to the new, as a heritage from 
master- teachers like Socrates, Paul, Luther, and 
Arnold of Rugby. Gregory' s * ' Seven Laws of Teach- 
ing," Trumbull's ''Teaching and Teachers," Brum- 
baugh's "Making of a Teacher," are expressions 
of these principles, all the better for Sunday-school 



38 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

teachers because they deal with the application of the 
principles rather than with the principles themselves. 

The Sunday-school teacher needs training in other 
matters than the science and art of teaching. He 
needs to study the ever-broadening field of his work. 
He is more than instructor. He is student, teacher, 
trainer, officer, under-pastor, shepherd. He is the 
spiritual ally of the home, the recruiting officer of 
the church, the conscience-maker of the state. His 
work, for the first time in religious history, is being 
inquired into by university and college men, who 
seek to correlate it with their own. He is vidette and 
drill-master of the church. Over against him and his 
one hour on the Sabbath is set an array of evil forces 
— the neglectful Christian home, the godless home 
with positive evil training, the vices of the street and 
the evil companions who ensnare youth, the bad 
books and papers in easy reach. He must study 
ways of counteracting these evils. He will need to 
study the art of the trainer even more than the art of 
the teacher. Training is more difficult than teaching. 
It is putting into practice what is taught. It is the 
difference between planting the seed and caring for 
the plant until it comes to maturity. Teaching gives 
knowledge ; training makes character. And the 
teacher' s abiding work is along the lines of training. 

But above his teaching and training, as his supreme 
mission, the teacher needs to study the art of soul- 
winning. It is a divine art, and its processes are 
nowhere so plainly set forth as in the teacher' s Bible. 
The lesson that is made plain to the mind, but does 
not find its way to the heart, is a failure. The teacher 



What It Should Be 39 

who has no conversions in his class is an anomaly. 
To save his scholars is his one great duty, and his 
position gives him opportunity beyond that of even 
pastor or parent. Any teacher-training system that 
does not include and exalt this soul-winning art is 
unworthy its name. 

THE MODERN SCHOOL 

Place a tallow candle at one end of a room and an 
Edison electric lamp at the other, and you have by 
contrast the school of Raikes and the modern Sunday- 
school. Learning to spell and read have given place 
to graded teaching and graded lessons. The unclassi- 
fied room of Gloucester gamins is transformed into 
the model Sunday-school building, with departments 
and class-rooms. The four women, at a shilling a 
Sabbath, have grown into millions of picked men and 
women, the "cream of the church," as Mr. Jacobs 
was fond of saying. Raikes' place as a superinten- 
dent is held by Wanamaker, Pepper, and Lawrance. 
What was a " mission school" has become the chief 
dependency of the church for growth and power. 

It is in the light of such progress, and under such 
increasing pressure, that the Sunday-school teacher 
must do his work. He is not a mere spectator. He 
is a vital part of the complex machine, — cylinder, 
shaft, balance-wheel, or safety-valve. The school's 
frictionless movement depends upon him, and he in 
turn depends upon the school. He must know his 
place and keep it, or become the "hot box" of hin- 
drance to life and motion. I have known a single 
teacher and class to obstruct the entire machinery 



40 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

of a Sunday-school. The teacher, by virtue of his 
office, is an officer of the school. He is an assistant 
superintendent, though not known by that title. The 
school is his workshop and drill-ground. His own 
class is but one of the successive stages through which 
his scholars must pass. 

He ought therefore to know what precedes and fol- 
lows him. He should study the various departments, 
their management and methods. He should know the 
ins and the outs of every approved modern method. 
He should study the art of managing a school from 
the standpoint of the superintendent, which differs 
only in measure from his own management of a class. 
He should learn how to keep the school' s records and 
finances, and run its library and Home Department. 
He should study the music, the literature, the pro- 
gram. Especially he should be a student of the his- 
tory of the Sunday-school movement, from its crude 
Old Testament beginnings to its splendid modern de- 
velopment He need not lack for training-books that 
will give him this bird's-eye view of the modern 
Sunday-school. From a score or more of recent text- 
books it would be hard to say which is best, but if my 
choice were restricted to one book I would take Law- 
rence' s ' • How to Conduct a Sunday School, ' ' or Axtell' s 
'* Organized Sunday-school," or McKinney's "Bible 
School," or "Vincent's Modern Sunday-school." 

LOYALTY TO CHURCH 

I do not place the church last in the elements of a 
teacher-training course because it is greatest or least 
Logically it comes last, as all our Sunday-school ser- 



What It Should Be 41 

vice should be to exalt and magnify the church as 
the one divine institution in the earth. I cannot 
sympathize with or understand a system of teacher- 
training that does not begin and end in the church. 
Nor can I esteem one fully equipped to teach and 
train the children of the church who is himself 
untaught and untrained in its noble history and doc- 
trine. I would as soon think of training the public- 
school boy for citizenship in our republic without a 
knowledge of the country to which he belongs, and of 
the men who purchased our liberties by their blood. 
One day in Chicago I saw a crowd of boys silently 
gazing into a shop window, oblivious to all sights and 
scenes of a great city. I followed their reverent look, 
and I saw what had fixed their eager eyes. It was a 
small, tattered, and powder-blackened flag, and be- 
neath it was the legend, "This flag was in the battle 
of Bunker Hill." There is a love of church that is 
deeper than love of country, and I would have every 
teacher to know and feel it, and to inspire it in his 
Sunday-school class. 

I have no love for that mawkish sentiment that any 
church is good enough, and that *'it makes no differ- 
ence to what church one belongs." I have found 
that the men and women who counted for something 
in faithful, self-denying work, were those in whom 
denominational love and loyalty were deep rooted. 
Although a paradox on its face, I have also found 
that the rock-ribbed denominationalist was oftenest the 
most catholic and helpful in any Christian fellowship 
or work. I am sure that every trained teacher will 
be a better and stronger teacher if he adds to his 



42 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

training equipment a knowledge first of the general 
church of Christ in all lands and ages, and then builds 
upon this a fuller knowledge of his own denomina- 
tion. I call to mind Hurst's "Outlines of Church 
History*," a small book, fairly and accurately written, 
which is a sample book of study of the general 
church. The denominational history, each denomi- 
nation will provide for its own. I beg pardon for a 
personal reference. I was born into a family that 
has been Methodist for six generations, my father a 
Methodist preacher. There is nothing I love so 
much in all the world as the church of my fathers. 
Yet I have never been accused of narrowness or big- 
otry. When I am in trouble, and things seem to go 
hard against me, it is my custom to take down the 
life of Wesley or Asbury, or some story of the men 
who suffered and died for my Methodism, and in their 
heroic presence I come to myself again. 



WAYS OF DOING IT 



T 



IV 
WAYS OF DOING IT 

SUGGESTIVE TRAINING-COURSES 

An Elementary Course. 
IME. — One to two years. 



Term. — October to June, — eight months each year. 

Membership. — Sunday-school officers, teachers, and 
chosen young people. 

Requirements. — A written pledge to attend the meet- 
ings and to study and complete the course. 

Meetings. — Weekly, at an hour apart, or in connection 
with the teachers' -meeting. 

Plan of Study. — The leader or a committee apportions 
in advance the subject-matter of the course, in weekly sec- 
tions, for home study by members. 

The Weekly Program. — The hour used chiefly in re- 
view and drill upon the week's section, as previously as- 
signed. 

Leader. — The best man or woman available, to direct, 
but not always to teach, the class. 

Examinations. — As prescribed by the course selected, 
or as prepared and conducted by the leader upon completion 
of a book, together with frequent additional oral reviews. 

Graduation. — A special public church service, with 
address and presentation of diplomas. 

Course of Study. — (Any books mentioned in these 
chapters can be obtained of The Sunday School Times Co., 
Philadelphia.) Your own church course, if it has one ; if 
not, then any one of the following training-courses : Pease's 
"Normal Course " (first and second series. 50 cents each) ; 

45 



46 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

" Assembly Normal Union " (two books. 50 cents) ; Hurl- 
but's "Revised Normal Lessons" (40 and 25 cents); 
Semelroth's "Complete Manual" (50 and 25 cents); 
"Legion of Honor" (first and second series. 25 cents); 
Spilman's "Normal Studies" (25 cents). 

An Advanced Course. 

Time. — Two years, as a minimum. 

Term, Membership, etc. — As with elementary course 
above. 

Course of Study. — Your own church course, if it has 
one ; if not, a course composed of five books, — one book 
each upon the five subjects following : 

The Bible. — Dunning's " Bible Studies " (40 and 25 
cents); or, Sell's "Bible Study by Periods" (60 and 35 
cents) ; or, " The Bible and its Books " (50 cents). 

The Scholar. — Miss Harrison's "Study of Child Na- 
ture " ($1) ; or, Du Bois's "The Point of Contact in Teach- 
ing " (75 cents) ; or, Schauffler's "The Teacher, the Child, 
and the Book" ($1) ; or, Wells's "Sunday-school Suc- 
cess " ($1.25) ; or, Trumbull's " Hints on Child-Training " 
($1.25) ; or, Forbush's "Boy Problem" (75 cents). 

The Teacher. — Brumbaugh's " Making of a Teacher " 
($1.00, net); or, Trumbull's "Teaching and Teachers" 
($1.25); or, Hamill's " The Sunday-school Teacher" (50 
cents). 

The Sunday-School. — Lawrance's " How to Conduct 
a Sunday School " ($1.25); Vincent's "Modern Sunday- 
school" (90 cents); Axtell's "The Organized Sunday- 
school" (5ocents); McKinney's " BibleSchool" (50 cents); 
Foster's "Sunday-school Manual" (75 cents); Boynton's 
" Model Sunday-school " (50 and 30 cents). 

The Church. — Hurst's " Outlines of Church History " 
(40 cents), followed by brief history of your own denomi- 
nation. 



Ways of Doing It 47 

Special Pastor's Course 

Hatcher's "The Pastor and the Sunday-school" (75 
cents) ; Chapman's " Spiritual Life of the Sunday-school " 
(35 cents); Lawrance's "How to Conduct a Sunday 
School" ($1.25) ; Trumbull's "Teachers'-Meetings" (30 
cents) ; Hamill's " Sunday School Teacher " (50 cents, net). 

CONDUCTING A TRAINING-CLASS 

The touch of elbows in any good work is always 
stimulating and helpful. Wherever it is possible, 
therefore, to form a class, the work will be better and 
surer. The choice of an elementary or an advanced 
course, as outlined suggestively above, will depend 
upon local conditions. The mistake is often made of 
setting too severe a standard at beginning. Many 
who turn away from an advanced training-course will 
return to it after successfully completing an elemen- 
tary course. A desire for the more thorough study is 
begotten by the easier work. Especially is this true 
of the young people who are willing to be put in 
training. The pressure of time, the cost of books, 
the lack of the study habit, the .small ambition of 
many of these, need to be considered. The elemen- 
tary course is not child's play. In any one of the 
elementary courses I have named a good foundation 
is laid in the subjects which should constitute a 
teacher-training course. For my own part, I would 
advise any teacher, or one who wishes to become a 
teacher, to take the severer course. Its five or more 
books, patiently studied and assimilated in two years' 
time, will assure success as a Sunday-school teacher 
to the ambitious student, though of moderate ability. 



48 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

Several points need to be carefully guarded in the or- 
ganization of a training-class. Much depends upon the 
spirit and purpose of those who compose it. Hence 
I have suggested a written pledge to attend the meet- 
ings of the class, and to study and complete the 
course. I would admit none who would not subscribe 
to this pledge. After the novelty and enthusiasm of 
the first study and meetings have passed, as they in- 
evitably will, I should need the reinforcement this 
pledge would bring. Better a little handful who ' • mean 
business," than a multitude of mere enthusiasts. 

SECRETS OF GOOD LEADERSHIP 

More than this is the choice of a leader, upon 
whom, in most cases, the final success or failure of 
the class will depend. A training expert is not always 
the best leader. Successful leadership, I have found, 
is a matter of personal rather than educational qualifi- 
cation. The leader who has common sense, sympa- 
thy with others, watchfulness to encourage the weak 
and laggard student, and an unfailing purpose to hold 
his class together to the end, may know little about 
training-books, but is the kind of leader who will suc- 
ceed. Much, too, depends upon the regular weekly 
meeting of the class, and the wise apportionment of 
the subject-matter of the course of study. 

In the beginning, the order in which the books are 
to be studied, and the time to be given to each book, 
and the further division of each book into weekly 
study sections, should be carefully planned and ex- 
plained. Nothing should be allowed to change or 
cancel the regular meetings of the class. Either the 



Ways of Doing It 49 

one expert leader should conduct the weekly session, 
or, if no one is more expert than the others, the mem- 
bers in turn may lead. As the one purpose of the 
weekly meeting is to review the week' s study, and to 
test what has been learned, however clumsily this may 
be done, any member of the class is competent to do 
it A review of the salient points only of the subject- 
matter studied, followed by a spirited drill upon these 
points, as written upon the blackboard and recited 
over and over by the class, is a simple yet effective 
method of class leadership. 

As this method proceeds, the value of class study 
will be shown in the sifting of the subject-matter, and 
the determination of what is or is not important. 
From time to time the class should be tested by care- 
fully prepared oral reviews, based upon questions 
ranging through the book in hand, and including its 
salient matter only. I recall one class whose mem- 
bers thoroughly mastered their course of study by the 
use of this very simple catechetical method. Their 
weekly meeting was nothing more than the old-fash- 
ioned "cross-questioning," back and forth, first by 
one, then by all. Again I urgently insist, as enforced 
by the experience of many years in training-work, 
that it is not upon expert leadership or method the 
average training-class must depend. If these are at 
hand, use them and be thankful. But there is a 
something which I cannot define, yet have often seen 
and admired, — a rugged sort of independence and 
purpose, in the home-grown, necessity-evolved leader 
and method, which somehow eclipses the finest work 
of the professional trainer. 



50 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

I once asked the secret of such a leader' s success. 
He was a hard-working Western farmer, who had a 
wonderful "knack" of holding together and getting 
the best out of his country training-classes. ' ' Oh ! 
he' s just one of us, — he knows us, and we know him, ' ' 
was the reply I received. I have found no finer 
qualification for local training leadership than that 
country phrase, — " Just one of us." 

TESTING A TRAINING-CLASS 

There is an old maxim about the ' ' proof of the 
pudding," etc. I confess that I have little respect for 
so-called ' ' reading courses ' ' for Sunday-school teach- 
ers, at the end of which there is nothing to test thor- 
oughly the work that has been done. A training- 
course without a thorough and comprehensive written 
examination to enforce this test is like a kite without 
a tail. It may be a good kite, but it will not fly. I 
never encourage a mere ' ' reading ' ' course. I have 
found by disappointing experience how carelessly and 
superficially such reading is often done. I exact 
downright honest study instead as the only road to 
success, whether in secular or religious learning. 
There ought to be nothing of the patent medicine, 
••quick-cure" method in our training work. For 
years I put at the head of all training-books and leaflets 
the admonition, "Do not play at normal work." 
Anything less than hard study and mastery of the 
text is a snare to the student, and has deservedly in- 
curred the sharp censure of those secular educa- 
tors who have a sincere concern for Sunday-school 
teaching. There is already too much of the knowl- 



Ways of Doing It 51 

edge that puffeth up. I think one reason for the 
indifference towards teacher - training on the part 
of some of our brighter pastors is their just aver- 
sion for training schemes that make a teacher of 
you "while you wait" Any reader of these lines 
who wants to become a Sunday-school teacher in 
fact as well as in name, but is unwilling to pay 
the price of hard study as tested by a thorough ex- 
amination, will find nothing farther of interest in 
these chapters. 

It was a saying of Lord Bacon that "reading mak- 
eth a full man, conversation maketh the ready man, 
but writing maketh the exact man." Upon the com- 
pletion of each book of study, the leader of the class, 
or his pastor or superintendent in his stead, should 
conduct, in writing, an examination sufficiently com- 
prehensive and severe as to test fully and fairly the 
quality of the work done by members of the class. 
Several hours should be given to it, and every allow- 
ance made for clumsiness and faultiness of papers, 
and every encouragement shown to any who scare at 
the ghost of an examination. But I insist that in 
these written papers will be found the final and fair 
test of whether the student put mind and heart into 
his work. Let him understand that he must earn 
what he gets, if he is to be trained to respect himself 
and his work as a teacher. I have not found that 
this standard of hard study and thorough testing 
repels. Wherever it does, repulsion is better than 
attraction, and sifts the wheat from the tares. Along 
with every batch of examination questions I have 
been sending out to training-classes, I have tried to 



52 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

guard the integrity of the examination by some such 
requirements as the following : 

1. These questions are mailed to you directly as leader, 
or as pastor or superintendent of an individual student. 

2. Please see that the questions are withheld until the 
hour for examination, and that the examination is fairly 
conducted, under your immediate supervision and at one 
sitting. The time, place, length of time given, and all 
other details, are left to your own discretion. 

3. Call all members together ; read these instructions ; 
urge each to take the examination at the one time and 
place fixed, as the questions are not severe, and the stand- 
ard for diploma fair and reasonable. Every examinee, 
upon completing his examination, should certify in writing 
that "the examination has been taken upon honor." 
Please see that this statement accompanies each set of 
papers sent. 

GRADUATING A TRAINING-CLASS 

As I have urged a written examination as a final 
test of study, so I urge the public recognition of those 
who have proved faithful students. If the test of 
study discloses conscientiousness and thoroughness of 
work by the student, he should be accounted worthy 
of every honor, local or general, that can be con- 
ferred. While the training diploma is not the end in 
view, it should signalize the end of the training-course. 
It is the concrete objective, and will do much to hold 
the class together and assure a better quality of study. 
It gives dignity to the training work, and calls public 
attention to its importance. I do not count it a weak- 
ness in men or women to covet the honors they have 
fairly won. The desire for honorable recognition is a 



Ways of Doing It 53 

weakness to which most of us are liable — if it is a 
weakness. The Bible allows for it. Paul and Peter, 
and other apostles and good men, were not above it. 
Our Lord, as he tells us in one of his parables, holds 
in reserve a word of public recognition that I trust all 
of us at the last may hear, each for himself: "Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant" 

I have had the privilege thus far of signing more 
than five thousand training diplomas, and of present- 
ing very many of them in person to the hard-working 
Sunday-school people who had earned them. In the 
West and South, and in Canada especially, this clos- 
ing service of public recognition has proved a strong 
and needed stimulus to the work. In Illinois, year 
after year, the one great hour of the annual Sunday- 
school Convention is that devoted to honoring its 
host of teacher-training graduates. No expense is 
spared, no device is unused, and the great audience 
is always at its greatest and best when that hour 
occurs. In my present field I am setting the gradu- 
ates of my church in the finest place of honor I can 
contrive upon the platform of Annual Conferences, 
before the chief dignitaries of the church, and am 
putting their names upon the "Roll of Honor" in 
all its Sunday-school literature. 

Most, if not all, of the training-courses I have named 
in this chapter provide diplomas for their graduates, — 
the Assembly Normal Union, the Pease, the Semel- 
roth, the Hurlbut, the Legion of Honor, and others. 
Several of the churches have their own training- 
courses and diplomas, which every loyal churchman 
should first consider. More than forty of the inter- 



54 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

denominational, state, and provincial Sunday-school 
associations award their own diplomas to graduates of 
association courses. Diplomas, general in form and 
adaptable to local conditions, may also be procured. 

At its Winona, Indiana, meeting, in August, 1903, 
the Executive Committee of the International Sunday- 
School Convention appointed a "Committee on Edu- 
cation," composed of seven college and Sunday- 
school men, who were instructed to formulate "stand- 
ards and rules governing the issuance of an Inter- 
national Sunday-school teachers' diploma," for use 
throughout the entire continent. Of the seven men 
of the committee it is worth noting, as a sign of the 
advance of teacher-training in the church, that three 
of its members are President W. O. Thompson, of 
the Ohio State University ; President E. Y. Mullins, 
D. D., of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 
and Dr. M. G. Brumbaugh of the Philadelphia public 
schools. In the next chapter the reader will find a brief 
statement of what this committee has already done. 

Whatever the diploma that marks the end of the 
course, it should be awarded with every accessory of 
honor. In the local church chosen by the class, on 
Sunday evening preferably, as a special service, the 
graduation of the class should be observed. The 
pastor or pastors of the graduates should "lay them- 
selves out" to make it an occasion of peculiar interest 
and profit. It should be thoroughly advertised in 
every paper and home in the community. The fair- 
est flowers and the brightest music should enhance it 
The graduates, the elect pastors and superintendents, 
and the officers of the church, should occupy the 



Ways of Doing It 55 

place of honor upon the platform. The finest address 
that some pastor or speaker of ability can deliver 
should be the feature of the evening. The award of 
diplomas should be made as impressive as possible, 
and the occasion generally should prove an impetus 
to local Sunday-school work. I am not dealing with 
the theoretical. I know what these occasions may 
do. I have had the honor to take part in more than 
a hundred of them within the last ten years. May 
their number and their influence for untold good in- 
crease ! 

Here is a souvenir program of such a graduating 
service. The paper is growing yellow, and the lines 
are fading out, but I specially cherish it as a token of 
the first service in which I presented diplomas to a 
teacher-training class. Behind the fading names a 
rhost of tender memories arise of the faithful leader 
and class of that Southern Illinois town : 

LEGION OF HONOR GRADUATING EXERCISES 
Methodist Church, Carmi, Illinois, January 15, 1891 

Program 
Duet : "The Light of the World," Mrs. A. A. Lehman 

and M. W. Spencer. 
Bible Reading : Thomas Parkhurst. 
Song: "Coronation," congregation. 
Prayer : Rev. J. G. Dee. 

Theme : The Bible. 
A Book for Every One : Miss Florence Emerson 
Duet: "Lamp of Life," Miss Annie Tate and W. J. 

Blackard. 
Its Literature : Miss Mae E. Dunlevy. 
Its Teachings : D. L. Boyd. 



56 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

Song : " Wonderful Words," by normal class. 

Its Authenticity : Miss Ina Anderson. 

Its Inspiration : Mrs. Ira Reeves. 

Song : " Walk in the Light," by normal class. 

Address : Rev. H. M. Hamill, followed by award of 

diplomas to class of twenty graduates. 
Song : " Here am I, send me," congregation. 

DOXOLOGY AND BENEDICTION. 

A HOME-GROWN VETERAN TRAINER 

Mr. George P. Perry is a successful druggist of 
Sterling, Illinois, and a Baptist in good standing. He 
is of the "home-grown" variety, with a pronounced 
Western flavor. There proved to be much more in 
him than his friends or myself had discovered. 
Never a college or seminary man, he invented a 
unique and most helpful objective study of the 
' ' Life of Christ, ' ' which has gone round the world. 
For many years, though yet a young man, this 
veteran organizer and conductor of training-classes 
has been modestly making fame for his little city. 
There is nothing phenomenal about the man or 
his methods. He has those three homespun quali- 
ties of the American proverb, — "grace, grit, gump- 
tion." He is a fair illustration of the possibilities in 
thousands of men and women, who could match his 
achievements if they would. I wrote asking him to sum- 
marize his teacher-training work. I have his modest 
reply, from which I extract the more pertinent facts. 

Sterling, III., October 19, 1903. 
Dear Dr. Hamill :— 

I began my teacher-training work here in 1885. For 
months before I conducted a campaign of agitation on the 
subject in township conventions and by personal contact. 



Ways of Doing It 57 

Since that time no year has passed without systematic teacher- 
training. My classes have almost always been composed of 
members from various denominations. My method of con- 
ducting the class is to assign a lesson in advance for study, 
then, by question and blackboard and illustration, teach it as 
best I can. I have never organized a class but it finished the 
course of lessons. I have used a number of series of teacher- 
training courses, — the " Assembly Normal Union," Dunning's 
" Bible Studies," Hurlbut's " Normal Outlines," the " Legion 
of Honor," etc. I can go into nearly any school in the city 
and pick out my pupils as part of the school's teaching force, 
many of whom have assured me of great good derived from 
the course they studied. Usually I begin my classes in Octo- 
ber, and continue through April, the number of meetings 
ranging from twenty to twenty-eight. I am now conducting 
my eighteenth and nineteenth classes. My total enrolment of 
students to date is five hundred and twenty-seven, average 
attendance two hundred and ninety-five, and the number com- 
pleting a course by written examination and receiving diplo- 
mas is one hundred and sixty-one (including the probable 
graduates of my present classes). 

Sincerely, 

George P. Perry. 

I shall not paint the lily nor adorn the rose by 
comment upon that letter. 



TEACHER-TRAINING AGENCIES 



TEACHER-TRAINING AGENCIES 

BY THE TEACHERS' - MEETING 

I AM mindful of my promise. It was to the effect 
that a variety of ways would be suggested, by 
some one of which any teacher might secure the 
training desired. I know nothing better to begin 
with than the teachers' -meeting. Wherever and what- 
ever the Sunday-school, the teachers' -meeting is 
indispensable. It stands first in any catalog of 
teacher-training agencies, because the weekly lesson 
must be studied, and the one place for its most effec- 
tive study is in this meeting of teachers. I might go 
farther, and say that, when a school holds regularly 
and faithfully its meeting of teachers, it has already 
taken a long step in the direction of teacher-training. 
But it needs to take another step. It should add 
to its weekly lesson study a course of specific teacher- 
training. To do this would double its interest and 
usefulness, and would do away with the popular ex- 
cuse that busy teachers have not the time for both 
teachers' -meeting and training-class. Let the two 
be made into one, as both are closely related and 
interdependent. One cannot study the lesson with 
others without getting a measure of training, nor can 
one study a training-course without learning how better 
to study and teach the lesson. I can see how teacher- 
training work might become at once a feature of 

61 



62 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

thousands of Sunday-schools, if pastors and superin- 
tendents would readjust their teachers' -meetings to 
the double end of lesson study and teacher-training. 
Let any one of the approved elementary training- 
courses be selected, if there is no prescribed denomi- 
national course ; or, from the list of training books 
given in these articles let a special course be chosen, 
and for a year of pledged attendance and study let the 
following weekly program be enacted : 

Teachers' -Meeting Program 

Time : Eighty minutes. 

Place : The cosiest church room. 

Leader : The superintendent or pastor, or both. 

Members : The officers and teachers and young people of 
the "teacher-supply class." 

Meetings : Monday evening. 

Pledge : To attend and study both lesson- and training- 
course for one year. 

Program : Ten minutes' prayer-meeting ; ten minutes as a 
council upon the school ; thirty minutes' lesson study ; thirty 
minutes training-study. 

THE TEACHERS' CLASS 

I have suggested the use of the teachers' -meeting in 
a training way as an easy initiative. From the best 
estimates at hand, about one-fourth of our Sunday- 
schools already conduct these weekly meetings of their 
teachers, and have therefore a convenient time, 
place, and opportunity for beginning a teacher-train- 
ing work. But I urge it as a compromise at best. 
There are many Sunday-schools whose officers and 
teachers are willing and ready for independent and 



Teacher - Tra in ing Agencies 63 

specific teacher-training. To these the teachers' - 
meeting, if one is held, is a place for lesson study 
only. Their desire is for a distinct course of teacher- 
training, apart from all other meetings, after a plan 
and under a leader of their own, with the one set pur- 
pose of becoming trained teachers. I sincerely sym- 
pathize with this desire for independent study. The 
end to be attained is worth the additional effort, and 
even the teachers' -meeting is subordinate to the train- 
ing-class. Both are practicable in the same school, 
the membership of both being substantially the same. 
It is simply a question whether the teacher, in addi- 
tion to the hour given weekly to the teachers' -meeting, 
is willing to add an hour each week for the study of a 
training-course. With such direct and exclusive pur- 
pose in view, it is easy to frame a program for train- 
ing-work : 

The Teachers' Training-Class 

Members : The teachers, officers, and pastor. 

Time : Any convenient hour each week. 

Place : The pastor's study or church parlor. 

Leader : Elected by class or appointed by superintendent 
and pastor. 

Course of study : Denominational or selected, — two years. 

Condition : Pledged members only. 

Program : Review of previous study, led by members alter- 
nately, fifteen minutes ; blackboard drill upon main points of 
the week's study, by class leader, thirty minutes ; discussion 
by class, fifteen minutes. 

I have at hand the report of such a class. It comes 
from the Bethel Sunday-school of old Charleston. 
"Dux femina acti," — which is Virgil's way of saying 



64 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

that a woman was the moving spirit in it. It is one 
of the teachers' classes in my charge of which I am 
especially proud, and I shall not, therefore, introduce 
it apologetically. I wrote to the leader, asking a 
matter-of-fact statement of the ups and downs of the 
class, that I might use it, if desired, in print Here 
is the reply : 

Charleston, S. C, October 16, 1903. 
Dear Sir : 

I disclaim credit for the success of our train- 
ing "Circle No. 369." Our pastor, the Rev. E. O. Watson, 
has been virtually our leader in conducting the meetings of the 
Circle. He first called the notice of the teachers to the forma- 
tion of the teacher-training department of our church. He 
explained its organization and purpose, and called for the 
names of those who would enter upon the work. Thirteen 
responded. I was elected leader. From the roll of the teach- 
ers of the school, by personal appeal, I added five more mem- 
bers. We had our difficulties. Some were skeptical as to this 
new movement ; some were elderly people who had not kept 
in touch with the educational progress of our day ; some were 
unaccustomed to study ; and others, after beginning, were in- 
clined to drop out We had extremes as to age, and I was 
embarrassed by the fact that the older teachers had known me 
from infancy, and one had been my teacher. As to how these 
and other difficulties were met and overcome, I can put it in a 
single sentence, — by persistently and patiently keeping at it. 
At our meetings I would carefully watch the various members, 
then would privately manage to give to the discouraged a word 
of cheer. With those who seemed indifferent I would en- 
thusiastically enlarge upon the great opportunity our church 
was affording us for preparation in the great work we had un- 
dertaken as teachers. I used all the tact I had, and kept at it 
at every opportunity. I would tell them how I had studied 
the course, what notes I had taken, and how I tested my work. 
I began with eighteen members. Fifteen will receive the full- 
course diploma of our church, and the remaining members are 



Teacher- Training Agencies 65 

yet at work on the first-year course. I lost one member only, 
— by removal. Most of our members are self-supporting, and 
find it therefore difficult to meet at night, as we were com- 
pelled to do. I was much encouraged by the enthusiasm of 
some of our members, by the timely encouragement and notice 
of us given in our Teachers' Magazine, and by the fact that 
the pastor, who is a born leader, used our " Bible studies " as 
the basis of his prayer-meeting talks. All our work was free, 
hearty, informal, and conversational. What I did was with 
the individual members, privately encouraging and persuading 
them. I believed in the movement with all my heart, and 
tried to present it to the others as I saw it. 

(Miss) Mary E. Hamlin. 

THE CLASS IN THE SCHOOL 

If I have a training "hobby," it is this, — a class of 
picked young people in every Sunday-school in train- 
ing to teach. All else, in its last analysis, is a mere 
make-shift in solving the vital problem of teacher- 
training as it now confronts the church. The utiliza- 
tion of the teachers' -meeting is good if there is 
nothing else at hand ; the formation of a distinct and 
independent teachers' training-class is better ; but 
the class of young people in the Sunday-school under 
training to become the future teachers of the school 
is by all tokens the very best. It is the one way to 
"grow a crop of teachers." Teachers' -meetings 
come and go, and ebb and flow. Teachers' - classes 
at best mend existing methods of teaching. The 
class in the school strikes at the root of the church' s 
need. All other methods are reformative ; this is 
essentially formative. My old friend in Illinois, Dr. 
C. C. Miller, used to cut across my oft-repeated pleas 
for temporary training expedients with the curt ques- 



66 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

tion, "Why don't you aim directly at the bull's-eye? 
You are not hitting it with these devices." I knew 
my critic was right, though I was doing the best I 
could under adverse conditions. I must go the same 
round of devices and expedients now, but I realize 
more than ever that the one sure and satisfactory 
solution of teacher-training is for every church to put 
into its every Sunday-school in patient training a class 
of young people who shall be made ready to teach. 

I wish I could impart some of the unbounded con- 
fidence I have in this method to the pastors and su- 
perintendents who may care to read these lines. 
Already I am finding that it is the one solvent of most 
of the difficulties in my way as a trainer of teachers. 
There is an enthusiasm, a docility, often a holy zeal, 
in youth, that compensates for all other defects. My 
mail brings me frequently nowadays the cheering in- 
telligence that, while little could be done here and 
there to arouse the teachers, a company of ambitious 
young souls have banded together in the Sunday-school 
hour, and liave begun the study of my church' s train- 
ing course. A chairman of a state board of public- 
school examiners saw his opportunity, got together 
some young people in his Sunday-school, and is my 
latest correspondent and comforter. In a Sunday or 
two I am to visit, on invitation, a big school of several 
hundreds in which the teacher-training work has 
dragged heavily among its -fifty or more teachers ; and 
the purpose of my visit is to set in motion a training- 
class of twenty picked young women who are eager 
to enter upon their two years' course. Years ago I 
got my first inspiration along this line from a Western 



Teacher- Training Agencies 67 

college president, now grown famous, and his super- 
intendent, now governor of a great state, who jointly 
entered upon the experiment of growing their own 
crop of Sunday-school teachers from the devoted 
young people of the school. I wish I had time and 
space to tell how they did it, and how much life and 
vim it finally put into their school. Their "gallery 
training-class," with outlines on manilla paper and 
rapid-fire drills, and the pride of its graduates as they 
came to the end of a long hard course, before a great 
congregation, is a memory that stirs my heart. Here 
is a suggestive program for such a class : 

Young People's Training-Class 

Time : The regular Sunday-school hour. 

Place : A separate room, the "gallery," or a convenient 
corner. 

Membership : Any number of picked young people who 
" mean business." 

Pledge : To study and complete the course, and then to 
serve as teachers. 

Leader : The best available. The pastor, if he must teach. 

Training-Course : Either elementary or advanced. To take 
the place of the regular lesson study. A two years' course, 
with graduation and diploma. 

THE INDIVIDUAL STUDENT 

I come back at the last to the individual student 
Until the various denominations erect severally their 
training-courses, or the interdenominational associa- 
tions include all candidates for teaching in their train- 
ing-classes, the individual student must have a way 
provided specially for him. Even after all church 
and general training agencies are in operation there 



68 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

will be many who have not access to training-classes, 
or who prefer to do their training-study individually. 
Heretofore the individual student has been at a dis- 
advantage. From the many training-courses and 
books issuing from the publishers he knew not which 
to choose. Apart from the few distinct church or 
associated courses there was no official stamp of rec- 
ognition or authority upon them. The teacher-train- 
ing movement generally has been crude and chaotic, 
and needed classification and unification, to the end 
that one who was seeking a way to self- training as a 
Sunday-school teacher might have competent lead- 
ership and counsel in finding his way. 

Precisely what was needed has been done. In 
the fall of 1903 the Executive Committee of the 
International Sunday-School Convention, recognizing 
the fast-increasing demands of a great field for guid- 
ance along the lines of teacher-training, appointed a 
"Committee on Education," clothed with plenary 
power to help in the solution of all training problems. 
In the city of Louisville, December 16 and 17, 1903, 
the committee held its first session, and published 
its first address, which dealt chiefly, if not exclu- 
sively, with the problem of teacher-training. It has 
"cleared off the brush," not only for the individual 
student, but for the entire training field. As its 
thoroughly efficient helper in the field, its plans have 
been carried out by Mr. W. C. Pearce, of Chicago, as 
' ■ International Secretary of Teacher -Training. ' ' Mr. 
Pearce received his training in Illinois, the av ant- 
courier among great associations in teacher-training. 
He afterwards accomplished a great training work in 



Teacher- 7rai?iing Agencies 69 

the city of Chicago as its Sunday-school secretary. It 
has been his duty and pleasure to assist all who de- 
sired assistance in opening up a way towards teacher- 
training. 

The Committee on Education has already done its 
work of classification and unification, as its Toronto 
report will show. It has given "recognition" to the 
elementary training-courses now in use. It has fixed 
the standards for an advanced training-course. It has 
been issuing, through the secretary of teacher-train- 
ing, its elementary and advanced diplomas to all 
teacher-training classes and students who met the 
requirements of the several recognized courses of 
study and the standards of the Committee. It has 
asked and urged publishers of teachers' periodical 
helps to erect a teacher-training department for ex- 
plaining, encouraging, and instituting teacher-training 
agencies throughout the field, denominationally and 
interdenominationally. Let the individual student, 
and all others concerned as to teacher-training, read 
the action of the Committee as contained in the report 
of the Toronto Convention, and he will see that a 
long step has been taken towards solving the problem 
of Sunday-school teacher-training. 



INTERDENOMINATIONAL 
TEACHER-TRAINING 



VI 

INTERDENOMINATIONAL 
TEACHER -TRAINING 

THE CHAUTAUQUA IDEA 

ON A Tuesday evening, August 4, 1874, at Chau- 
tauqua Lake campground, New York, the first 
Chautauqua Assembly was convened, with John H. 
Vincent as Superintendent of Instruction. It was 
exclusively a "Sunday-school institute protracted to 
the length of two weeks.' * It was a great occasion 
and a great opportunity. Twenty-five states and all 
leading Protestant denominations were represented. 
But this was its one year of exclusive teacher-training. 
The original idea was expanded to include all forms 
of instruction, secular and religious. 

The first Chautauqua, although it long ago removed 
its ancient landmarks and has become the Chautau- 
qua University, in its earlier years was the pioneer in 
teacher-training, and its "Normal Union" blazed 
the way for other movements, denominational and in- 
terdenominational. A few of the hundred or more 
American Chautauquas continue to hold in honor the 
old idea of helping the Sunday-school teacher, nota- 
bly among these the mother Chautauqua in the East, 
and the Winona Assembly in the West ; but with 
most of them it is within bounds to say that teacher- 
training is a mere incident, and that the ratio of their 
expenditure for popular entertainment to their expen- 

73 



74 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

diture for teacher-training is a hundred dollars to one. 
The change has not come from lack of appreciation 
or patronage of Sunday-school workers, but chiefly 
from considerations of a commercial nature. Popular 
entertainment is a better dividend payer, and teacher- 
training, so far as related to the average present- 
day Chautauqua, is practically a lost opportunity. 

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL ASSOCIATION IDEA 

Within fifteen years the teacher-training movement 
largely passed from the Chautauqua to the inter- 
denominational Sunday-school Association. An inci- 
dent to the former, it is now the chief concern of the 
latter, as it is changing from formative to educational 
conditions. To these associations is largely due the 
credit of the present widespread revival of interest in 
teacher-training. What the Chautauquas failed to do 
these are doing in all parts of the great International 
Sunday-school field. Of the fifty or more associa- 
tions of the United States and Canada — state, provin- 
cial, and territorial — most of them have instituted 
teacher-training departments and courses of study. 
The number of their enrolled students runs up into 
tens of thousands, and their graduates are to be 
counted by the thousands. One state has an "Alumni 
Association ' ' of more than three thousand graduates. 
By a few of these associations training specialists 
have been employed, and departments thoroughly 
and systematically maintained. In most of these, so 
far, the courses of study operated are substantially 
elementary, and the standards of study and recog- 
nition are generally too easy and flexible. 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 75 

Yet despite the chaotic conditions under which the 
work has largely been done, together with faulty 
methods and incapable leadership, a great and wide- 
spread teacher-training work has been quietly done. 
Noting this fact, and yielding to the insistent appeals 
of Sunday-school leaders for a more clearly defined 
and unified system of teacher-training, a "Committee 
on Education" and an International secretary of 
teacher-training were appointed in 1903 by the Execu- 
tive Committee of the International Sunday-school 
Convention, to whom the matter of teacher-training 
was specially committed. 

THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION 

This committee, of which the writer has been chair- 
man from its organization, has for four years carefully 
studied the field of the International Association, and 
has sought to conserve and unify all teacher-training 
work among the associations and to correlate it with 
the work of the various denominations as far as this 
was desired by the denominations themselves. The 
twelve members of the Committee, representing the 
leading denominations of the country, and with large 
experience in both secular and religious education, 
have rendered an invaluable service to the cause of 
teacher-training throughout the world-wide Sunday- 
school field, and have already accomplished more in 
practical results than all preceding teacher-training 
agencies. 

Meeting annually, often semi-annually, at its own 
charges, the Committee has given many days of time 
and labor to its onerous and delicate work, but it has 



76 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

received again and again the hearty approbation of 
the International Executive Committee and of many 
denominational leaders. As reported for the tri- 
ennium ending at the Toronto International Conven- 
tion of 1905 (though the Committee's work had then 
but fairly begun), forty-three Sunday-school Associa- 
tion training-courses had been submitted and "ap- 
proved," and twenty- three of these Associations were 
using the International Elementary Diploma. Dur- 
ing the triennium 2,431 training-classes had been 
enrolled, with an enrolled membership of 32,377 
students, in addition to 1,834 individual students. 
During the present triennium, 1905-08, the number 
of classes is being greatly increased, and for one year 
only the number of students enrolled was more than 
forty thousand. So far, however, it is the Inter- 
national "Elementary Diploma" and "approved" 
Elementary Training Courses included in the above 
report. The Committee on Education adopted its 
standards for an "advanced course" in 1904, con- 
fining its work, very properly, to the formulating of 
"standards" only, and leaving to the associations 
and denominations the choice or preparation of text- 
books, it being the settled policy of the International 
Sunday-school Association to keep out of the business 
of printing and publishing. Since the adoption of 
the "advanced course" standards, several Sunday- 
school associations have erected "advanced" courses 
which the Committee on Education had approved, 
Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Illinois being first 
to enter the field. During the triennium, 1902-05, 
thirty associations reported 10,712 graduates, though 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 77 

this number is confessedly incomplete. Among the 
greater associations the number of enrolled students 
reported as pursuing a training course, in 1905, was 
as follows : Pennsylvania, 2, 890 ; New York, 2, 500 ; 
Illinois, 2,457 ; Ohio, 1,618 ; Nova Scotia, 1,000 ; 
Indiana, 722 ; Ontario, 703 ; Colorado, 551 ; New 
Jersey, 500. 

For many years Illinois has led among the Sunday- 
school associations in the number of classes and stu- 
dents, and has now an alumni association of more 
than four thousand graduates. Having erected the 
first Association teacher-training department in the 
world in 1888, under the writer's superintendency, it 
easily became the pioneer in interdenominational 
teacher-training. In zeal and aggressiveness this 
great Association, so long directed by the Jacobs 
brothers, is still in the forefront, but other associa- 
tions, notably Pennsylvania and New York, compete 
with it for international honors. Other pioneer asso- 
ciations were Ohio, under the veteran teacher-trainer, 
Colonel Robert Cowden ; Kansas, under General 
Secretary Engle ; Kentucky, under Professor E. A. 
Fox ; Nova Scotia, under Dr. Frank Woodbury ; 
New Brunswick, under E. R. Machum ; Iowa, under 
B. F. Mitchell ; together with the two California 
associations and Ontario. The little cloud that was 
no bigger than a man's hand twenty years ago has 
now covered the entire heavens. 

In all this later progress the wide influence of the 
International Sunday-school Association and its Com- 
mittee on Education have borne conspicuous part. 
But if any one agent should be named, the honor 



78 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

would deservedly fall upon Teacher-Training Super- 
intendent W. C. Pearce, who since 1903 has so effi- 
ciently carried out the plans of the International 
Sunday-school Association. It is a great pleasure to 
the writer, now that Mr. Pearce has been transferred 
from the place he has so greatly magnified to the 
superintendency of the Adult Class Movement, to pay 
to him this personal and official tribute. Always an 
enthusiast and safe counsellor in the field of teacher- 
training, he has written his name high among the 
pioneers in this recent and great international move- 
ment. 

INTERNATIONAL PLANS 

For the information of readers of this book, and to 
show how thoroughly the plans of the Committee on 
Education have been matured, the following extracts 
from the official literature of the Committee, now in 
wide circulation throughout the International field 
and generally adopted by the half hundred Sunday- 
school associations, are given. 

I. STANDARDS FOR COURSES OF STUDY 

The International Sunday-school Association, 
through its Committee on Education, has established 
standards for two courses of study, Elementary and 
Advanced. 

1. Elementary Course. Any course of study equiva- 
lent to the Legion of Honor, Hurlbut's, Pease's, 
Semelroth's or Roads' s Normal Outlines, or Sabbath- 
School Teacher Training Course, No. 1, is approved 
as Elementary. 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 79 

To those who are unfamiliar with these standard 
Normal manuals, it may be well to state that they 
comprise a general study of four subjects, as 
follows : 

a. An outline study of the Old Testament. 

b. An outline study of the New Testament. 

c. A study of Sunday-school History, Organization, 
and Management. 

d. A study of the essential Principles and Methods 
of Teaching. 

To each of these subjects is given about twelve 
lessons. 

2. Advanced Course. This course must include a 
study of the following subjects : 

a. The Bible. Introduction to the Old and New 
Testaments ; Biblical Geography ; Biblical History ; 
Biblical Doctrine. 

b. General Church History. (Denominational 
Church History referred to the various Denomina- 
tions.) 

c. Pedagogy and Child Study. 

d. The Sunday-school : Its History, Organization, 
and Management. 

The text-books in each subject shall be selected by 
the Association supervising the examination, and 
shall be of recognized college grade, as approved by 
the Committee on Education. On the request of any 
Association, the International Teacher Training Sec- 
retary is authorized to furnish a list of text-books 
approved by the Committee on Education, and to 
render any assistance desired in the arrangement of 
courses of study. 



80 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

II. THE INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA : HOW SECURED 

Two International Diplomas are prepared, one for 
each of the above named courses of study. These 
diplomas will be given by the International Associa- 
tion through the various auxiliary State, Provincial, 
and Territorial Associations and Denominations adopt- 
ing them, according to the following rules : 

1. The Association must have a Teacher-Training 
Department, and exercise supervision over all classes 
and students, said supervision to be evidenced by en- 
rolment and examination. 

2. A course or courses of study must be selected 
by the Association and approved by the Committee 
on Education. 

3. The examination must be conducted on ques- 
tions sent out or approved by the Association super- 
vising the work. 

4. The examination must be in writing, without 
help, and under the supervision of the Association 
conducting the examination. 

5. Those taking the examination shall make a 
grade of not less than seventy per cent. 

Any one residing in a State, Province, or Territory 
where the Teacher-Training work is not organized, 
may write directly to the International Teacher-Train- 
ing Secretary, care General Secretary, Mr. Marion 
Lawrance, Chicago, 111. In such cases he is author- 
ized to aid in the selection of a course of study ; 
to enrol students, conduct examination, and grant 
diplomas. 



Inter denoininational Teacher- Training 81 

III. HOW THE WORK MAY BE DONE 

1. Present Teachers, For those who are in active 
service at present, a class should be organized to 
meet during the week. Sometimes the work is un- 
dertaken in connection with the weekly teachers' - 
meeting, a part of the time being given to definite 
Teacher-Training. In many places, a union class of 
the community or district is the most practicable 
arrangement. Where none of these plans can be 
adopted, the work may be taken up by students 
individually. 

2. Prospective Teachers. For those who are our 
prospective officers and teachers, it would be best to 
organize a class to meet at the regular session of the 
Sunday-school. Such a class is more easily main- 
tained, because it is a part of the Sunday-school, and 
contributes toward making the Teacher-Training work 
permanent. 

3. Leadership. Good leadership is a most im- 
portant factor in a Teacher-Training class. Secure a 
trained leader, if possible, but a good leader is not 
necessarily a trained leader. Many classes have been 
successfully led by untrained workmen, who felt the 
need of the work and were willing to pay the price of 
success. 

4. Enrolment. Classes or individual students 
should, at the very beginning of their work, enrol 
with their State, Provincial, or Territorial Teacher 
Training Secretary. It is a constant stimulus to 
be in touch with all those engaged in the same 
work. 

5. Examination. When any section of any course 



82 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

of study has been completed, an examination should 
be taken. The Association with which the classes 
or students are enrolled will conduct the examina- 
tion. Rules governing the same will accompany ex- 
amination questions. 

6. Certificates and Diplomas. Certificates will be 
issued by the Association supervising the work to all 
students who satisfactorily complete any section of 
any course. The International diploma is granted 
only on the completion of a full course. 

7. Graduation. When a class has successfully 
finished any full course, a graduating service should 
be held. Everything possible should be planned for 
this occasion that would dignify the ministry of teach- 
ing. This service may and should be the means of 
magnifying the Sunday-school work, and securing for 
the Sunday-school a more general support. 

8. Supply Teachers' Class. Care should be exer- 
cised about calling upon a training-class of pros- 
pective teachers for supply teachers. This will 
hinder and sometimes break up the class. From 
the graduates, who may not be needed as regular 
teachers, a supply class should be organized. This 
class may study the lesson one week ahead of the 
school, and its members be prepared to teach at a 
moment's notice. 

9. Alumni Associations. It has been found to be 
practicable for the graduates of a School, City, County, 
State, Province, or Territory to form Alumni Associa- 
tions. Special social gatherings can be arranged, 
and many plans be devised to extend the work of 
Teacher-Training. 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 83 

IV. SUGGESTIONS TO PASTORS AND SUPERINTENDENTS 

1. Be constantly on the search for recruits for the 
training-class. The Church and Sunday-school is 
full of latent talents that need to be discovered and 
developed. 

2. Speak often with the young people and explain 
to them the need of trained Sunday-school workers. 

3. Put on your prayer-list those whom you specially 
believe to be full of promise as Sunday-school workers. 
Pray regularly, that God may guide them into the 
place he would have them occupy in his kingdom. 

4. Provide a good Sunday-school workers' library, 
and guide these young people in its use. Send or 
take them as delegates to Sunday-school conventions 
where they may meet other Sunday-school workers 
and leaders. In God's own good time many will 
hear his voice calling them into the Sunday-school 
ministry. 

5. When they have heard the call of God, they 
will be glad to join the training-class, that they may 
secure a preparation for the work. 

6. Secure the best possible place for this class to 
meet. A separate room is desirable, but not abso- 
lutely necessary. 

7. Provide the best equipment you can afford. A 
blackboard, maps, and a reference library are essen- 
tial to the best work. 

8. Do much to encourage the members of this 
class. Much of the work is difficult and laborious. 
They need constant cheer from those who appreciate 
what their work means to the future of the church. 

9. Help the members of this class to remember 



84 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

that they are making this preparation that they may 
become approved workmen, ■ • rightly dividing the 
word of truth." They need this motive in their 
work. Permit them not to become discouraged. 

THE CITY TRAINING INSTITUTE 

More than a score of the greater American cities 
within ten years have successfully conducted extensive 
campaigns of house-to-house visitation. Some of 
these campaigns were remarkable for the skill with 
which they were planned and conducted, and for the 
results achieved. They gave conclusive proof of the 
practicability of uniting the entire religious forces of 
a great city into one great movement. Very few of 
these cities as yet have entered the training-field, 
although the city has conditions peculiarly tavorable 
to the maintenance of teacher-training plans. Its 
compact population, material facilities, its massing of 
religious and educational leadership, especially the 
readiness and spirit of its workers and the usually ad- 
vanced state of its Sunday-school work, should open 
a way to the establishment in every city of a perma- 
nent teacher-training institute. 

From the signs about me I venture the opinion that 
this will be the next step in Sunday-school progress. 
Washington, District of Columbia, has for several 
years been the headquarters of the American Society 
of Religious Education, under the direction of J. E. 
Gilbert, D. D., long prominent in training work. 
Boston, which maintains the best "superintendents' 
unions" in the land, has, so far, no concerted teacher- 
training system. Philadelphia, in 1904, organized an 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 85 

elaborate Institute of Teacher-Training, with weekly 
lectures by a faculty of six men of unusual ability, 
and an official course of study with graduation and 
diploma. So far its well-laid plans have not justified 
expectation. New York City has had a Bible-Teachers' 
Training School, erected upon an almost ideal plan, 
devoting five periods of one hour each on Friday 
afternoons to an appointed course of study under 
some of the distinguished specialists of that city. 
Chicago is the center of the Religious Education Asso- 
ciation, the most recent organization for the promo- 
tion of religious education. With more than a score 
of departments, a membership of many distinguished 
ministers and educational leaders in annual conven- 
tion, much should be expected of this body in help- 
fulness to Sunday-school teachers. 

The trouble with the cities has been that their plans 
have usually been too elaborate and high-pitched. 
The lecture method without text, weighty courses on 
psychology, and critical discussions of the Bible, are 
beyond the mass of plain Sunday-school workers, 
however profitable to advanced students. Whatever 
is done in the cities in ways of teacher-training must, 
in the beginning at least, be very simple and imme- 
diately helpful, or it will not touch the rank and file. 

The most successful city experiment I have known 
began in Chicago in 1901, under Mr. W. C. Pearce, 
then Sunday-school secretary of Cook County. With 
a purely elementary course of study he organized his 
first training class, with an enrolment of two hundred 
students drawn from many schools, and maintained 
for six months of the year. In 1902, with four classes 



86 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

in the four sections of the city, there were often one 
thousand students in attendance. These students, as 
they were graduated, in turn organized training classes 
of young people in their respective Sunday-schools. 
The sessions of Mr. Pearce' s classes were divided be- 
tween the study of the training-course and the next 
Sunday's regular lesson. Out of these classes have 
already come hundreds of graduates. The very sim- 
plicity of the system, with the elementary quality of 
the work required, made it at once popular and ef- 
fective. Now that the International Convention has 
erected a teacher-training department, and appointed 
a teacher-training secretary, a forward movement 
should be looked for in many cities. 

SUMMER TRAINING SCHOOLS 

The latest development of teacher- training in the 
International field is the establishment of summer 
training schools for Sunday-school workers, as distinct 
from merely incidental lecture courses upon Sunday- 
school methods at Chautauqua Assemblies. The 
• ' summer school ' ' has now become a recognized 
feature of the International work, and as such receives 
the official approval of the Committee of Education, 
provided its range of subjects and its hours and meth- 
ods of study conform to the standards fixed by the 
Committee. Where this is the case, the school is 
listed, if so desired by its management, and the Inter- 
national "Certificate of Recognition" is conferred 
upon all students who meet the Committee' s require- 
ments. During the year 1906 fully two thousand 
such certificates were awarded. The oldest summer 



Interdenominational Teacher- Training 87 

school is the now famous " Primary School" held for 
many years at Asbury Park, under direction of General 
Secretary Rev. E. Morris Fergusson of New Jersey. 
The first school to be formally recognized by the In- 
ternational Executive Committee was the " Fourth Dis- 
trict International Summer School," held since 1904 at 
Winona Lake, Indiana, and including Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, Michigan, Ontario, and Kentucky. Dr. H. M. 
Hamill has been its Dean, and General Secretary 
Marion Lawrance Vice-Dean. This school has en- 
rolled annually for a two weeks' session more than 
500 students, and has been widely copied in plans 
and programs. A similar great school for the South 
has been organized by Dr. Hamill since 190$ at 
Monteagle, Tennessee, its last enrolment being 540 
students. The latest report from the International 
field — for the year 1906 — gives fully twenty-five schools 
entitled to the name "International." In connection 
with many of these are faculties made up of the most 
eminent Sunday-school specialists and Bible teachers 
in the land, ranking in ability, management, and 
program with the finest state summer institutes for 
secular education. The one weakness of such schools 
generally has been the lack of a stated income to pay 
expenses. Two great state Sunday-school associations 
— Pennsylvania and Illinois — have made definite ap- 
propriations of money, and smaller contributions have 
come from a dozen other associations, especially those 
of the Fourth District. 



DENOMINATIONAL TEACHER -TRAINING 



VII 
DENOMINATIONAL TEACHER -TRAINING 

THE CHURCH BASIS 

IN THE order of evolution denominational training 
work comes last, and, by the same sign, is, or 
ought to be, the best. It is the survival of the fittest. 
Thus far the work among the denominations is largely 
tentative and experimental. Its most hopeful feature 
is in the widespread interest now being manifested 
among all the churches. Even the few denominations 
that have made no formal and official beginning are 
frank to confess through their Sunday-school leaders 
that they greatly need and desire the introduction of 
some plan of teacher-training. The denominations 
whose polity is " connectional " have more easily in- 
stituted their plans, but those of congregational au- 
tonomy are finding a way to broad denominational 
systems. Ten years ago there was not a denomination 
that could fairly claim to have more than a fitful and 
sporadic training movement, without official sanction 
or direction from its law-making body. Now it would 
be hard to find even among the smaller denominations 
one that has not had the matter discussed in its high- 
est council. The denominations hold the key of suc- 
cess to any wide and permanent teacher-training 
movement. The International Sunday-school Asso- 
ciation, however wide its field and capable its man- 
agement, can at best only stimulate, assist, and report 

91 



92 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

the work by the denominations ; and it is fair to this 
great interdenominational organization, known as the 
"International Sunday-school Association," to say 
that the movement astir among all churches is largely 
the result of continued agitation and assistance from 
the hundreds of International conventions and other 
meetings held annually. The Committee on Educa- 
tion has been wise in not seeking to cross denomina- 
tional lines and attempt to do for the denominations 
what they can and should do for themselves. The 
most this Committee, composed of men recognized as 
denominational leaders, has asked for has been the 
co-operation of the Sunday-school departments of the 
various denominations, to the extent of observing some 
general standards of study and subject-matter and using 
the International diplomas, in addition to the church' s 
diploma whenever it was the desire of the church so 
to do. Even such limited and reasonable proffer of 
help has not been made as the right of the Inter- 
national Association, but as an act of mutual courtesy. 
"Blood is thicker than water." The church-mem- 
ber who is not loyal to his own denomination* s train- 
ing course and diploma is not worth the consideration 
of an interdenominational teacher-training depart- 
ment On the other hand, that church-member has 
small ambition i£ after honoring his own church and 
earning its diploma, he does not aspire to the diploma 
of a great organization which stands for the best that 
can be found in all churches. Already some of the 
denominations with training courses and diplomas of 
their own have asked the Committee on Education to 
grant the use of the International teacher-training seal 



Denominational Teacher- Training 93 

upon their church diplomas whenever the church 
course has met the required standards of the Com- 
mittee on Education. 

THE DENOMINATIONAL STATUS 

Space allows a brief outline at most of the teacher- 
training work now being done by the leading and 
representative denominations, reports of which have 
not been made officially to the International Teacher- 
training superintendent or its statistical secretary, and 
therefore are gleaned precariously from year books 
and personal correspondence. 

The Christian or Disciple Church, always an ag- 
gressive Sunday-school body, at its convention in 
Detroit in 1903 appointed a strong committee to de- 
vise and direct a system of training for its teachers. 
The committee has found it easier to plan than to 
find the man pre-eminently fitted for teacher-training 
leadership. Yet in several portions of the wide terri- 
tory which this church occupies, notably in Missouri 
and Illinois, plans of study have been enacted and 
diplomas conferred upon graduates for many years. 
A Correspondence course includes students in nearly 
one-third of the states of the Union. 

The same is true of the United Brethren Church, 
of which the well-known Colonel Robert Cowden of 
Ohio is the leading teacher-training authority. While 
it is difficult to exhibit or classify what this church is 
doing, it is to be credited with not a little teacher- 
training progress and spirit. 

In the Protestant Episcopal Church there is an 
unusual quickening of Sunday-school interest along 



94 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

all lines, but especially with respect to the teacher's 
equipment. In New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Michigan notably this Sunday-school re- 
vival is in evidence, and in the provinces of Ontario 
and New Brunswick of the Dominion of Canada. 
The Sunday-school Commission of New York, of 
which the Rev. William Walter Smith is secretary 
and lecturer, has been especially active in the way of 
instructing its teachers and organizing "extension 
classes ' ' in the larger cities. 

The Congregational Church has at least four emi- 
nent teacher-training experts in Drs. Dunning, Wells, 
Merrill, and Sanders, the last named having been 
taken from the Divinity School of Yale and assigned 
a position among the foremost Sunday-school special- 
ists of the land, as Secretary of the Congregational 
Sunday-school Society. With no official training 
course or distinctive department, the Congregational- 
ists furnish their full quota of graduates and students 
in all association training work, and especially em- 
phasize the training of their Sunday-school teachers. 

In 1904, the Presbyterian Churches North and South, 
the United Presbyterian, the Presbyterian Church in 
Canada, the Cumberland Presbyterian and the Re- 
formed Church in the United States, united in the 
preparation of an elementary training course and a 
plan of study and graduation, which is now the official 
course and plan of this great union of churches. 

The Southern Baptists have by their zeal and ag- 
gressiveness compensated in part for the yet unorgan- 
ized status of teacher-training in the Baptist Church of 
the North. At the session of the Committee of Edu- 



Denominational Teacher- Training 95 

cation, held in 1906, the thorough plans and courses 
of study begun in part by the Southern Baptist Church 
several years ago were "approved," and many classes 
are being formed and students enrolled throughout the 
entire South, under the leadership of Field Secretaries 
B. W. Spilman, L. P. Leavell, and others. In addition 
to the training course, these experts conduct institutes 
and schools of instruction in the greater centers. 

Notwithstanding the splendid record held by the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, with its three million 
Sunday-school scholars and the notable leadership of 
such men as Vincent, Hurlbut, Neely, and McFar- 
land, there is yet no distinctive teacher-training de- 
partment in operation, although for more than four 
years an institute corps has been actively at work in 
the wide field of this great church. 

Southern Methodism, after a trial of four years, be- 
ginning in 1900, through its General Conference con- 
tinued its finely-equipped teacher-training department, 
and its students number ten thousand or more. It 
provides a teachers', an officers', and a primary 
teachers' course, and its book of law requires the co- 
operation of all pastors in organizing "Bible Teachers' 
Study Circles wherever practicable." The Superin- 
tendent of Training Work is kept most of his time in 
the field of the entire South, addressing conferences of 
ministers and conducting institutes and conventions. 

THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS 

In all attempts to set forth the importance of teacher- 
training one must begin and end with the pastor. In 
its last analysis the teacher-training problem goes back 



96 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

to the seminary, where the young men of the churches 
are in training for the ministry. Not until these semi- 
naries begin to turn out a body of pastors with special 
modern Sunday-school training will other influences 
at work be successful. Think of more than a half- 
hundred theological schools running for more than a 
generation past with never a professor or book or lec- 
ture course in the way of equipping their graduates 
to know and to supervise the Sunday-school work 
committed to them as pastors ! It is comforting, 
however, to recall the great change that is in progress 
among these "schools of the prophets." The writer 
recently made a tour of certain seminaries under di- 
rection and at the expense of a State Sunday-school 
Association, where, a few years ago, the doors were 
closed against such an innovation. He received a 
courteous and appreciative hearing from hundreds of 
fine young men, the very flower of the church ; and 
also found at his Sunday-school lectures the full facul- 
ties of the several institutions visited. It has already 
been noted that three theological schools have pro- 
vided for, and, in part, have already instituted, pro- 
fessorships on Sunday-school pedagogy. Added to 
this, it should be put to the credit of these training 
schools for pastors, and viewed by friends of the 
Sunday-school as the brightest of all omens, that 
every seminary and theological school without excep- 
tion is erecting, as far as it is possible, a course of 
Sunday-school lectures by an acknowledged expert 
wherever such expert help can be secured. General 
Secretary Lawrance and others of the International 
staff cannot respond to all requests for such service, 



Denominational Teacher- Training 97 

and, in the judgment of the writer the time has come 
when a special seminary lecturer should be added to 
the list of International workers. 



A SPECIMEN TEACHER-TRAINING LESSON 

LOfC. 



VIII 

A SPECIMEN TEACHER-TRAINING LESSON 
Blackboard Outline 



THE LESSON 


Half-Hour. 


I. Getting Ready : 


O. T 


., C. G., C. S., A. B. c. 


II. Testing. 




III. Teaching. 


Attention. 
Home study. 
Thought. 




Plan. 

Matter. 

Method. 


IV. Reviewing. 




v. Applying. 


Every Sunday. 
By the scholar. 
Orderly and accurate 


Knowledge. 

Prayer. 

The Holy Spirit, 



DRIVING A NAIL 

TEACHING is like driving a nail. You have often 
heard of ' ' driving the truth home, ' ' which is a 
figure of the carpenter and his work. One can 
learn to drive a nail, and any one can learn to teach. 
Teaching is an art, and can be mastered like stenog- 
raphy, or bookbinding, or housekeeping, or any one 
of the industrial arts. It takes time and patience, 
but final success is as sure as in other arts. There 
are few ' ' born ' ' teachers. They are as rare as the 
born musicians and artists and poets. Most of those 
who have become eminent as teachers in secular and 
religious education are self-made teachers. They 
learned how, — by observation, by practice, by hard 

IOI 



102 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

study. They were bunglers at beginning, and came 
to success by finding out their blunders and making 
them stepping-stones to higher success. Shake- 
speare's words might be paraphrased to fit the case : 
* ■ Some are born to teach ; some have teaching thrust 
upon them ; but most teachers achieve teaching." 

The " lesson half-hour " is the crux of the Sunday- 
school teacher. It is the supreme test of his work. 
Out of a whole week he has thirty golden minutes in 
which to teach the greatest and hardest of all books, 
often to boys and girls who never hear of it outside 
the Sunday-school class. Every minute of the thirty, 
every step of the teacher in that half-hour, is weighty 
with responsibility. There is a right way to begin it, 
there are right methods to use in putting the lesson 
before the class, and there is a right way to bring that 
half-hour to an end. If teaching is indeed an art, 
and if any one of you can learn it, you have the right 
to ask me : " How should I begin, and continue, and 
close ? How can I use the short half-hour to best 
advantage ? What are the points that a teacher must 
steadily keep in mind while teaching ? What steps, 
and in what order, must I take in setting forth a Sun- 
day-school lesson ?" I shall try to make answer. I 
have put in outline on my blackboard five steps. No 
lesson can be truly taught without taking these five 
distinct steps. No step of the five can be omitted, if the 
lesson half-hour is to be effective and complete. 
Leave out a bone or artery of the body, and it is like 
the teacher who omits any one of the steps I indicate. 
Read with me these successive steps of the lesson 
half-hour: "Getting Ready," "Testing," " Teach* 



A Specimen Teacher -Training Lesson 103 

ing, " • ' Reviewing, " " Applying. ' " Let us take them 
in order. 

GETTING READY 

The one who gets ready to do a thing is likely to do 
it. The one who "gets ready" for business is in 
demand among business men. The engineer who 
gets ready his engine — every bolt, valve, and flue in 
order — is the man I like to ride behind on a journey. 
The lesson half-hour means only confusion and waste 
to the teacher who is not ready for it. I have given 
four points that the teacher must make ready if he is 
to make good use of his half-hour. They come before 
that half-hour begins. What is the first ? (O. T. ) 
That is old-fashioned and commonplace, but I assure 
you no teacher ever did, or ever will, succeed who dis- 
regards it. It stands for " On Time," which means, 
to the teacher, full ten minutes ahead of time. It is 
useless for a teacher to expect success who neglects 
the things that make success. The promptness of a 
teacher, I have noted for many years, is the sure 
prophecy of his success. The teacher who comes at 
the last minute comes mentally and spiritually out of 
sorts, irritable and irritating. His battle is lost in 
the first five minutes. He might have preoccupied 
the mischievous spirits of his class, and made an 
orderly beginning, but his late coming has lost the 
day's victory. Coming O. T., he should give to his 
scholars that " C-ordial G-reeting" which every 
teacher owes to his boys and girls, some of whom, I 
am sorry to say, know little of cordial greetings in the 
home. What a strange forgetfulness is that of the 



104 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

teacher who fails to give a hearty hand-shake and word 
of welcome to the little fellows who would be so glad 
to get it, and who would be disarmed of mischief by- 
it ? You cannot always control the " C. S.," which 
stands for "comfortable surroundings," but under 
the worst physical conditions you can mass the class 
about you, putting them where they can hear you and 
see you face to face. I believe in the hypnotic 
power of the eye, and I always keep my eyes busy in 
teaching. I believe also in teaching at short range, 
and I make the radii between me and the class as 
short as possible. If I have one boy more mischievous 
than another, I take pains to place him closest to me, 
so that I can rest my hand — lovingly — upon him. 

What is the "A. B. C." of the Sunday-school 
teacher ? It is simply this : Putting all lesson- 
leaves aside, laying down in the pew everything but 
the one book, the Bible, and then throughout the 
half-hour teaching eye to eye, face to face, heart to 
heart, — A. B. C, "All Books Closed." It is the 
beginning of the alphabet of teaching, and until you 
are willing to do this, or at least patiently to attempt 
it, you might as well give over the hope of success. 
Learn to " shoot without a rest," if you expect ever 
to become an expert marksman, 

TESTING 

The second step is testing. You are ready now to 
take up the day's lesson. Your coming on time, 
your kindly welcome to your scholars, your plans for 
a comfortable hour, your thorough knowledge of what 
you are to teach, put you at ease, and make you 



A Specimen Teacher -Training Lesson 105 

master of the situation. What am I to test ? First, 
attention. I might say first and last, as the test of 
attention must run throughout every moment of the 
lesson, you cannot begin or continue or conclude a 
lesson without it. The teacher's knowledge is only 
one-half the circle. The other half is the scholar' s 
attention. Resolve that you will not teach without it. 
Do everything possible to secure it. Make any sacri- 
fice to get it. Hold every member of your class re- 
sponsible for every part of the lesson. Never begin 
teaching in the least disorder. Never continue a 
moment after inattention sets in. Give the scholar 
who is wandering something to do. Ply him with 
questions. Be ready to spring a surprise upon any 
one who turns away his mind or face. Don' t fret or 
worry or scold. Never ask for attention. Determine, 
by God's help, that you will have it, and methods 
will rise up when needed. 

Test the home study. Remember that most schol- 
ars are lacking in parental help at home, and that 
thirty minutes a week is all too little for their Bible 
study. Plan for home study. Take every lesson to 
pieces a week in advance, and give out the parts to 
scholars. Show them precisely what you wish them 
to do in the home. Pledge them to read the lesson 
over in the home. Show them how to use lesson-leaf 
and Bible together in learning a lesson. Let them 
understand that you expect home study. Begin by 
questioning upon it in the lesson half-hour. No 
matter how often the reply comes, « ' I don' t know, ' ' 
or " I have not studied it," keep up your opening 
fire of questions every Sunday, and assume that they 



106 How to Become a Trained Teacher 

have studied. This is what the trained public school 
teacher does, and this is why " leaves " and "helps" 
are never seen in the secular lesson half-hour. Every 
influence that can be called into use is made to press 
upon the scholar to secure his study at home. 

Test the thought of your scholars. Plan your 
questions to make them think. Do not lecture them. 
The lecture method may do for the college class- 
room, though I have my doubts about it. Certainly 
it is not for Sunday-school boys and girls. They need 
simple thought-provoking questions upon the text of 
the lesson. Take verse by verse, and draw out from 
them, each according to his ability-, what the text 
says and what it means. Do not think for them. 
Give them time to think for themselves. Better let 
a boy or girl wrestle five minutes over a word or sen- 
tence of the text, and finally get at it, than for the 
teacher to fill him with a mass of knowledge he can- 
not digest The best teaching in the world is that 
which compels the learner to do his own thinking. 

TEACHING 

Your opening test of home study, your constant test 
of attention and thought, open the way for your plan 
of the day's teaching. I need not urge that there 
must be a "plan" to every lesson, yet I often come 
upon aimless, chaotic, disjointed Sunday-school 
teaching, abounding in knowledge and illustration, 
but without form, and void. Your danger will be try- 
ing to use bodily the plans of the great lesson-writers 
and papers without fitting them to your smaller need. 
I believe in a home-made plan for ever)- teacher. 



A Specimen Teacher -Training Lesson 107 

When Saturday night comes, you should have a 
home-spun plan of what you are to teach, what things 
in the lesson are of vital account, how the lesson 
should begin and close, especially how it should be 
fitted to your scholars. 

As to the matter of your teaching, that must depend 
upon your class. The less of the abstract and the 
more of the concrete you can put into your teaching 
of boys and girls the better. Leave ' ' ologies ' ' and 
"doctrines" to the seniors, where they will harm least. 
I have known scarcely a lesson in twenty-five years 
that did not have in it in plain sight some one 
great practical truth that I could make the nucleus of 
my lesson plan, and fit it to my boys or girls. One 
such truth — and you will usually find the key to it in 
the Golden Text — is enough for the lesson half-hour. 
Settle upon that, bend everything to it, go over it again 
and again, make it the heart of the day' s teaching, 
and put your whole heart into it As to a method of 
teaching I have little to say. Any method that drives 
the truth home is right I change methods as I 
change my clothing. If I see a good method I bor- 
row it, and use it, and then throw it away. Only do not 
use adult methods on children, or conversely. I have 
found nothing so good for boys and girls as the old 
Socratic method of the question and answer. 

REVIEWING 

So far, your teaching has aimed at imparting, but 
that is only half your work. You can never know 
from your own point of view as the teacher whether 
the scholar's learning has kept pace with you. You 



108 How to Become a Trai7ied Teacher 

must prove your teaching. No lesson is complete 
until the teacher knows that what he has taught the 
scholar has surely learned. If every teacher would 
apply this test to his work, his teaching would grow 
in simplicity and power. The old Jesuits understood 
it. It was "line upon line, precept upon precept," 
with them. They never let up until what they had 
set out to teach had been thoroughly learned. There- 
fore, review every Sunday. Review especially all 
hard lessons until they become easy. Do not do this 
reviewing yourself. Let it come from your scholars, 
one by one. Give each a part in it. Only what a 
scholar can "tell back" does he know. Take noth- 
ing for granted. Let the scholar' s review or restate- 
ment of the lesson, or of some part of it, be as 
orderly and accurate as he can make it Truth, in or- 
der to be retained and used readily and with profit, 
must be after an orderly plan, and exact in statement 
Do not be discouraged if the review by the scholar 
seems slow and bungling. It is vastly better so as a 
test of his learning and a proof of your teaching, than 
any possible re-viewing you could do for him. 

APPLYING 

The last step — not always last in time — is applying 
the lesson. It is rather applying that which is vital, 
spiritual, and most profitable in it, to your class. The 
hardest thing I have to do is finding what and how to 
apply this one soul-saving truth. I can never come 
to it until by hard study I have a full knowledge of 
the lesson. I do not believe one can get at it by any 
other way than first by hard study. Certainly God will 



A Specimen Teacher -Training Lesson 109 

not unlock the Bible to laggards and ignoramuses. 
But I find that I need to know also my boys and girls, 
or how can I apply the truth, after I have found it, to 
those whom I do not know or understand ? And 
when I have studied my lesson the best my conditions 
as a teacher allowed, and have learned also to know, 
without and within, my Sunday-school scholars, there 
is just one thing more I must do — last and greatest 
and most needy it is — before I can truly and wisely 
apply the truth of God to human souls. I must go to 
my closet and pray. God forbid that I go before my 
boys and girls except from bended knee. ' ' From 
closet to class." When I have done all else, then, 
and not until then, will the Holy Spirit own and bless 
my lesson half-hour. 

DRIVING A NAIL 

How is this teaching like driving a nail ? I have 

here a good, big, strong (nail). I took pains to 

get ready as fine a nail as the hardware man could 
give me. Getting ready the nail is the first step, — it 
is coming on time, making welcome your class, know- 
ing your lesson so that you can teach (all books closed). 

What is the next thing a carpenter does with his 
nail ? He sets it. He tests point and position and 
wood in setting it. He does not try to drive it head 
down. So the teacher must test the scholar as he 
drives his teaching nail. 

After getting his nail and setting his nail, the car- 
penter drives his nail. Driving the nail is the direct 
teaching of the lesson. I drive one nail, one point, 
at a time. I drive it blow on blow, which is question 



no How to Become a Trained Teacher 

on question. I do not try to push it to place by main 
force, — which is the lecture method. 

And when I have driven my teaching nail, I must 
then prove it. I must turn my board about, and see 
if the point of the nail has gone home. Do you see 
the point? 

Last comes the clinching of my nail. Get it, set it, 
drive it, prove it, but do not fail to have it clinched. 
Some one else must do that for you. Your study and 
knowledge and prayer will help, but at the last it is 
only the Holy Ghost who can clinch the truth as you 
drive it home to the mind and heart of the scholar. 



JUL 24 1907 



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